THE HERO OF ERIE 

— ..-lOLIVER HAZARD PERRY: 



BY JAMES BARNES 



J ^ ^ IIMIi ^ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 







1 ** .. '"> f^^f 



LIBRARY OF CONORESS. 





Younjj; Perry with his father on board the General Greene. 

(See page 15.) 



THE HERO OF ERIE 



THE HERO OF ERIE 



(OLIVER HAZARD PERRY) 



JAMES BARNES 

AUTHOR OF COMMODORE BAINBRIDGE, 

MIDSHIPMAN FARRAGUT, NAVAL ACTIONS 

OF THE WAR OF l8l3y ETC. 



ILLUSTRATED 




NEW YORK 

D. APPLETON AND COMPANY 

1898 



e:->- 



18883 



Copyright, 1898, 
By D. APPLETON AND COMPANY. 



if7|/eC0PtfS RECEIVED. 




bS^S^O 



iV.-^ 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER 

I. — Wherein Oliver learns what 


his fathf 


r did 


PAGE 

I 


II. — The midshipman 




ID 


III. — The fire-ship 










22 


IV. — On the lakes 










29 


V. — The young commander 










40 


VI. — The flagship 










50 


VII.— The battle . 










61 


VIII. — Without fear or favor 










72 


IX. — A sailor on horseback 










90 


X. — After the victory 










105 


XI. — At Newport station . 










114 


XII. — Off to the south 










122 


XIII. — At Baltimore 










128 


XIV. — Defending the city 










136 


XV. — A rescue 








. 


148 


XVI.— The bitter end . 








. 


156 



LIST OF FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS. 



Young Perry with his father on board the 
General Greene . . . . . 

The midnight surprise of the Detroit . 

"Ready! All ready, your honor!" 

The battle on Lake Erie . , . . 

"If a victory is to be gained, I'll gain it" 

The Niagara's advance .... 

The smaller vessels coming into action 

Perry's victory ..... 

The battle of the Thames 

Commodore Oliver Hazard Perry, U. S. N 



FACING 
PAGE 



Frontispiece 



35 
42 

59 
69 

75 
80 

87 
102 
156 



Note. — The publishers wish to acknowledge the courtesy of 
Charles T. Harbeck, Esq., whose collection has supplied 
the old engravings reproduced in this volume. The dia- 
grams in the text are from A History 0/ the United States 
Navy, 1775-1898, by Edgar Stanton Maclay, A. M. 

vii 



THE HERO OF ERIE. 



CHAPTER I. 

WHEREIN OLIVER LEARNS WHAT HIS FATHER DID. 

Captain Christopher Raymond Perry had just 
returned home from a long voyage to the East Indies. 
It was the year 1795. Since his marriage, twelve years 
previously, he had been making long voyages, and 
spending but little time with his family. But this is 
what a sailor's family have to become used to. His 
comings and goings, like his life when afloat, were 
uncertain; sometimes months and months would go 
by without the eager ones at home receiving a word 
from the beloved parent or brother, and then suddenly 
his ship would come into port, and before word could 
be sent ahead of him he would drop into the home 
circle as suddenly as if he had descended from the 
skies. 

Mrs. Perry had known that her husband was on 
the seas returning, and perhaps it was her prayers that 
gave the vessel fair winds and pleasant weather. A 



THE HERO OF ERIE. 



sailor has a way of expressing this when on a home- 
ward voyage; if everything is going finely, he says: 
" The girls at home, sweethearts and wives, must have 
hold of our towline." And many times had Captain 
Perry made this observation to himself, for he had 
sighted Block Island, bound into Providence, almost 
a fortnight before he had expected to in the due 
course of events. The moon rose early at this time 
of the month, and in its bright rays he had crept past 
Point Judith and the Island of Canonicut, and had 
dropped his anchor before midnight well up the har- 
bor. Mrs. Perry, who lived in the town of South 
Kingston, had been awakened by a knocking on the 
door, and, wondering what the message could be, had 
gone down to open it. She had seen a figure stand- 
ing there, and with a cry of joy she had found her- 
self in her husband's arms. The children did not 
know that a great, strong man, whose eyes had filled 
with tears, had looked down upon them that night as 
they lay asleep; but early in the morning the news 
had spread about the house, the welcome, joyful 
words, " Father has come home from sea! " When 
they came down to breakfast they felt a little strange 
and half frightened, for their parent's stay was never 
long, and sometimes the tones of his voice, and even 
his appearance, had ahiiost faded from their minds. 
Soon after the morning meal, which the young ones 
ate in rather a constrained silence. Captain Perry had 



OLIVER LEARNS WHAT HIS FATHER DID. 3 

to leave again to superintend the unloading of his 
ship. 

But the next day being Sunday, he spent it with 
them, and late in the afternoon he had called to his 
oldest boy, Oliver, and hand in hand they had walked 
through the orchard and the lower meadow until they 
had reached a place where two large maples threw a 
grateful shade upon the grass. 

Captain Perry seated himself, and leaned back 
against the trunk of one of the trees and drew a long 
breath of pure contentment. What man could be hap- 
pier? He had finished a successful voyage. He had 
found his family all alive and well. He was young, not 
even yet in what people term " the prime of life." He 
looked down at the peaceful river, and dropped his 
head forward on his chest; far away he could just see 
the masts of his vessel lying safe at anchor. He listened 
to the humming of the bees and the murmur of the 
insects, and to the gentle rustle of the leaves above 
his head, and no wonder he felt contented. No wonder 
he closed his eyes and drew again a thankful, heart- 
felt breath. Suddenly the little boy who had nestled 
by his knee, and who had been rather shy at first, in- 
terrupted his thoughts. 

" Father," he said, looking up with great round 
eyes into his parent's face, " tell me a story." 

Now, to a man in a happy frame of mind there is 
no such pleasant task as to tell stories to a young 



THE HERO OF ERIE. 



and appreciative listener; and if the listener happens 
to be a child of his own, surely the pleasure is more 
than doubled, and the story can not fail to be of in- 
terest. There was evidence of that in the very attitude 
of this expectant audience of one. He had clasped 
both hands upon his parent's knee, and had rested his 
round chin upon them, and the father looked down 
on the boy's face and smiled. He felt inspiration grow- 
ing within him. Some day perhaps this boy would 
be telling stories in his turn, and so he began: 

'' How old are you, Oliver, my son? " 

" Ten my last birthday, father." 

" Well, then, I'll begin when I was your age. I 
wasn't quite so tall as you are now, but I was very 
strong " 

" I'm not very strong," put in Oliver, in a sad, 
apologetic little tone. 

" Never mind that, son," went on his father, 
"you've grown so fast; why, you're a half head taller 
than most boys of your age, and you'll grow up to 
your strength, too; and now I'll go on with the story: 
I lived here in the same house where you live now. I 
went to the schoolhouse that you go to, and old Mr. 
Judson, whom you often see in his big white wig and 
snuffy coat on the streets, was my schoolmaster. 
Things are very little changed; I could almost im- 
agine, as I look about me, that I am your age again. 
These trees were not quite so tall as they are now, and 



OLIVER LEARNS WHAT HIS FATHER DID. 5 

there are a few new houses on the hillside, and the 
meeting-house has a new steeple, but, as I say, all is 
about the same. I played the same games that 
you do; I set traps for squirrels and woodchucks, and 
I gathered birds' nests in the spring and chestnuts in 
the fall, and fought snowball fights in the winter, and 
so you know by looking around you what my life was, 
and how happy a boy can be who has little care and 
sorrow. But all this time every one was talking of 
the troubles of the country, and saying that it would 
be but a short time before we would be at war with 
England. The talk increased every day, and the 
troubles brewed, until one morning the news was 
brought to us by the postboy that the country had risen 
and that a battle had been fought, and that the war 
was on. I was but fifteen years old when this took 
place. I had sailed in boats on the river, as you do now 
with your companions, and I had made one or two 
little voyages out on the sound, and so I became filled 
with the idea that I must be a sailor, and that the 
country was in great need of my services as such. 
For a long time my family would not hear of it — 
imagine how your mother would hate to see you leave 
her — but at last, when the war was on about a year, 
I obtained their permission to leave home, and em- 
barked as cabin boy on board a privateer commanded 
by Captain Reed. The life of a sailor is a hard one 
at the best; perhaps no man works harder and has 



THE HERO OF ERIE. 



fewer comforts. He must be ready at all times to tum- 
ble out of his cozy hammock and go on the wet, slippery 
deck, or he must climb aloft in the cold, cutting snow- 
storm, to help furl sail. He must be ready to fight 
when called upon, and he must be obedient to orders, 
always alert and vigorous. As the old song goes, ' he 
must be all of one part with his ship.' Some lads 
take naturally to this sort of life, and perhaps without 
boasting I may say that I did. I thrived in the rough 
life, and when I returned after my first voyage my 
folks scarcely knew me, I had grown so brown and 
strong." 

The boy, whose grasp had tightened on his father's 
knee, winced a little, and Captain Perry, who had not 
noticed this, once more drew a long breath, looked 
up to the peaceful branches of the tree above his head, 
and out once more on to the shimmering reaches of 
the river. He paused for a few minutes, and mayhap 
his thoughts wandered back more vividly to the stir- 
ring days of twenty years before. But the boy never 
took his eyes off his father's face. In his mind a 
firm resolve was growing. In that flash of time he 
decided for himself, as many a youngster has upon an 
instant decided his future and lived to round it out. 

" Go on, father," he said quietly; " pray don't 

stop." 

Captain Perry placed his hands on the boy's head, 
and took up his tale again. He went on to tell of how 



OLIVER LEARNS WHAT HIS FATHER DID. 7 

he had vohinteered upon the piibhc vessel of war 
Trumbull, and how he had fought on her until he 
liad gained command of one of the broadside guns, 
and how, after this voyage he had volunteered on 
board the sloop-of-war Mifflin, commanded by Captain 
Babcock, and how he was taken prisoner when she 
was captured by the enemy, and confined on board the 
dreadful prison ship Jersey. He told of the horrible 
sufferings; of the starvation and disease that carried 
off the prisoners by the score; of how at one time a 
boat would come twice a day to take away the dead. 
He told how he had seen strong men waste away to 
living skeletons and wish to die. When he came to 
the part of his narrative in which he related how again 
and again he planned to escape, and how at last the 
dreadful prison fever laid hold of him, the boy began 
to gasp, and the father paused, then hurried on the 
telling. When he came to the part that told of his 
liberation, little Oliver sighed with relief, and so the 
tale proceeded. Captain Perry in graphic words de- 
scribed how he had again taken service on board a 
private armed brig commanded by Captain Rathbone, 
and had cruised on a voyage full of excitement, straight 
into the English Channel. Here again he had been 
taken prisoner, and for eighteen months was confined 
in a British prison. When he related his thrilling 
escape from this, Oliver was panting and almost trem- 
bling with excitement. Closely he followed the rest of 



8 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

the story — how his father had, after a life of vicissitude 
in London, managed to ship aboard an Enghsh vessel 
bound for the island of St. Thomas, whence he had 
made his way to Charleston, South Carolina, and 
there soon learned that peace had been declared. This 
same year he had made a voyage to Scotland, and re- 
turned as mate of the vessel. 

" And who do you suppose was on that voyage 
with me, Oliver? " he asked. 

" I know," the boy put in; " mother was. She 
told us all about it once." 

Captain Perry again drew a long breath. " She 
was indeed, my son," he said. " It was there I met 
her, and it was the luckiest voyage of all my life, and 
the luckiest voyage I shall ever make." 

It was so dark by this time that lights had begun 
to twinkle in the windows of the farmhouses across 
the river. The captain drew his great watch out of 
his pocket. " Whew! " he whistled, imitating the boat- 
swain's call, "pipe down all hands! Mother must be 
wondering what has become of us. Come, my lad, 
let's have a run back to the house. Ahead with you, 
and see what your legs are good for." They struck 
into a dog-trot, hand in hand, and every turn in 
the path the captain would sing out, " Hard astar- 
board now!" or "Hard aport!" as the case might 
be, until at last they dropped anchor on the door- 
step, and announced their arrival with a hail, 



OLIVER LEARNS WHAT HIS FATHER DID. 9 

"Supper ahoy, there!" and a rush into the dining 
room. 

Mrs. Perry was unpacking the box containing the 
wonderful East Indian shawls and some odds and 
ends of trinkets the captain always brought back with 
him from his voyages; and then Oliver boldly spoke 
out his thoughts: " Mother," said he, with his cheek 
against her shoulder, " some day I'm going to be a 
sailor " — he paused — " like father," he added. 

" Then, Oliver," returned Mrs. Perry, glancing at 
her husband, " you will have to be a very good one." 

Like every boy whose head is full of but one idea, 
the lad could dream of nothing that night but ships and 
the sea; and when the next day he accompanied his 
father down to the vessel he tried to imagine him- 
self in command of her, and grew quite excited as 
his mind suggested fights and adventures. 



CHAPTER 11. 

THE MIDSHIPMAN. 

Before Captain Perry had sailed away he had 
promised OHver to do everything in his power to se- 
cure for him an appointment in the navy. The naval 
force at this time belonging to the United States was 
practically nothing. We possessed no first-class ship, 
and hardly a vessel in commission was kept in prop- 
er shape. There were a few gunboats in some of 
the ports, useless vessels, take it altogether, and the 
finances of the Naval Department were at low ebb. 
Oliver went to school at Newport. He had become 
a boy of but one idea. Maybe the love of the sea was 
in his blood, for such things are sometimes an inherit- 
ance. At all events, he dreamed of it and thought of 
it, and read all the books that he could possibly lay 
hand to that dealt with seafaring life. He would spend 
his spare hours along the water front, and with the 
assistance of an old sailor he began the construction 
of a miniature full-rigged ship. 

Every time his father returned from his voyages 
during the next few years he found his son still grow- 
ing, and still in the same settled purpose — that of fol- 
io 



THE MIDSHIPMAN. ii 

lowing in his footsteps. And now a great change 
took place in Captain Perry's life. Early in the year 
1798 Captain Perry left the merchant service and 
accepted the command of the United States frigate 
General Greene, and upon his return from his first 
cruise he secured the appointment so long wished 
for, and returned home in April, 1799, for a short stay. 
When he joined his ship, young Oliver Hazard Perry, 
dressed in a new midshipman's uniform, was with him. 
Some people might have considered it a drawback 
for a lad to have commenced his career by serving in 
the same vessel his father commanded, but Oliver was 
a boy of too much individuality either to be hindered 
by this connection or to take advantage of it. He 
took his place among the other midshipmen naturally 
and without assumption. He worked hard and dili- 
gently at his studies, and soon became the leader in 
the steerage so far as mathematics was concerned. 
Now, if a boy supposes that by leaving school and 
going to sea he is going to escape the drudgery of 
study and the dry poring over dull facts and figures, 
he is mistaken. All the work that he has done here- 
tofore will be found to be nothing when compared with 
that which he has to go through with in the service 
— that is, of course, if he wishes to become an officer 
and earn the attention and respect of superiors and 
inferiors alike. 

The General Greene had set sail at once for the 



12 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

Havana station, and, in a short cruise of three months 
in those waters, convoyed more than fifty merchant 
vessels to different ports of the United States, She 
would probably have stayed longer had it not been that 
a contagious fever broke out in the forecastle, and 
she was ordered home to spend a long time in quar- 
antine. 

Midshipman Perry had now begun to grow up to 
his height, his muscles were becoming developed and 
hard, his shoulders and chest had broadened, and his 
face had become fuller; altogether he was a very dif- 
ferent-looking lad before the end of the year was out, 
and all this his father noticed with satisfaction. Every 
morning before breakfast on board the General Greene 
the midshipmen were sent in a scamper up the shrouds 
to the maintop, and down again the other side, and 
this was twice repeated. Any one who might consider 
this light exercise had best try it for himself. It was 
not long before Midshipman Perry was a leader in 
this sport, as well as in the study of navigation and 
the languages. 

Although Captain Perry saw no more of his son 
than he did of the other midshipmen, he was delighted 
and proud. He perceived that there was the making 
of an officer in his boy, and often his eye glistened 
when the junior officers spoke well of Oliver. As 
for the midshipman himself, his admiration and love 
for his father grew and expanded daily, and he be- 



THE MIDSHIPMAN. 13 

lieved firmly that with him in command nothing could 
go wrong, no enemy would ever be able to take the 
ship, no storm would battle her, no misfortune over- 
come her. 

A little incident that occurred while the General 
Greene was still cruising in the Gulf is well worth men- 
tioning, because it shows so plainly the independence 
and the boldness of spirit that the early Yankee cap- 
tains seemed to possess. One bright day, while on a 
voyage from New Orleans to Havana, with a large 
merchant brig under convoy, a great sail well up to 
windward was seen bearing down, and soon it was made 
out that the stranger was a British seventy-four. The 
brig was also to windward of the General Greene, and 
thus the British battle ship approached her first. She 
was a faster sailer than either of the American vessels, 
and, although the words could not be heard, it was 
evident to all on board the General Greene that the 
stranger was hailing the brig, who edged ofif a little 
without replying. Probably angered at being thus 
ignored, the English captain fired a gun across the 
smaller vessel's bows, but no attention was paid to this, 
and both Yankee ships sailed on, minding their own 
business and betraying not the least flurry of excite- 
ment. Quietly the crew of the frigate was called to 
quarters, for it was made out that the Englishman was 
up to some trickery. Forging ahead of the brig once 
more, he dropped a boat without heaving to, and 



14 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

an armed crew slipped down into her, but soon after 
they had taken up their oars, and before they reached 
the little vessel's side. Captain Perry had given a few 
instructions to one of the gunners of the first division 
on the spar deck to bring his piece to bear upon the 
boat, 

" Handsomely, now, my man," said Captain Perry, 
" and see if you can make a good shot of it." 

" Am I to try to hit her, sir? " asked the gunner, 
a little astonished. 

" If you can," answered the captain laconically. 

What would have happened if that shot had struck 
the small boat it might be hard to say; as it was, it 
slammed into the water but a few feet astern of her, 
and deluged the men in the stern sheets with a shower 
of spray. The men at the oars apparently did not 
like the idea of becoming a target, and stopped rowing. 
Their boat drifted down with the wind until it reached 
the side of the General Greene, but the seventy-four had 
begun to act like a very angry mother hen whose one 
chick had been disturbed and frightened. Her yards 
swung around with a clatter, and bristling and bustling 
she bore down upon the little frigate. Then she swung 
about so as almost to blanket her, and an officer on 
the quarter-deck of the Englishman appeared at the 
rail, trumpet in hand, and hailed angrily: 

"What ship is that?" 

" The United States frigate General Greene." 



THE MIDSHIPMAN. 15 

*' Why did you fire at my boat just now? " 

" To prevent her boarding that brig. She is under 
my protection, sir." 

The EngHshman's irritated outburst in reply to this 
caused the officers on the General Greene's quarter- 
deck to smile, despite the rather serious aspect of 
affairs. 

" It is a strange thing," roared the British captain, 
" if one of his Majesty's seventy-four-gun ships can 
not examine a merchant brig." 

Captain Perry hailed back through his own trum- 
pet a reply to this: 

" If she carried one hundred and twenty guns she 
should not do it to the dishonor of my flag." 

A consultation was held on the Englishman's decks, 
and then the captain came to the rail again. 

" Pardon me for having been apparently hasty," 
he said, " but have you any objection to my boarding 
the brig? " 

Captain Perry looked out across the water for 
an instant, and then responded in tones quite as 
polite: 

" If her captain has no objections, I have none," 
he responded. " You had better ask him, sir." 

" Thank you, sir," answered the British captain. 

" Good-day to you, sir." 

" Good-day, sir." 

And now the Yankee officers could not keep from 



i6 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

laughing. During all this talk the little brig had been 
making short tacks and beating up into the wind, 
until she had so well gained the weather gauge that it 
would take the Englishman full half a day, despite his 
speed, to be on even terms again. As soon as he had 
perceived what had happened, as if deciding that the 
game was not worth the candle, he gave it up, and 
bore away to the southward before the wind. Very 
soon the brig and the frigate joined company again, 
and without any further adventures they reached their 
destination. 

In the year 1800, with the same ofificers and the 
same crew, the General Greene was dispatched to 
cruise in the waters surrounding the island of Haiti, 
and here the midshipmen had an opportunity to see 
a little fighting, for ofit" the port of Jacmel the General 
Greene dropped anchor. The inhabitants of the island 
were then in revolt, and were under the leadership of 
the celebrated negro general, Toussaint I'Ouverture. 
As the United States had for some years been upon 
bad terms with France, and as the independence of 
the island was considered to be more promising to 
American commerce, the General Greene assisted in the 
reduction of the fort, and after blockading the port 
for some time she joined with her batteries in an en- 
gagement which resulted in the evacuation of the town 
by the enemy, and the surrender of the fortress and 
garrison eventually. 



THE MIDSHIPMAN. 17 

The General Greene suffered but little in the action, 
and no lives were lost. 

Oliver and his father did not part until the fol- 
lowing year, 1801, when the naval force of the nation 
was reduced again to almost nothing. In the fall of 
this year the corsairs of Tripoli commenced such 
depredations upon American commerce that it was 
deemed necessary to send three frigates and a sloop 
of war to the Mediterranean at once. Young Perry 
was attached to the Adams frigate, under the command 
of Captain Campbell. So successful was this little 
fleet that the pirates were driven practically from the 
Mediterranean waters to the protection of their ports, 
and thousands upon thousands of dollars were saved 
to American commerce. 

In 1803 Perry returned to the United States. He 
was now an acting lieutenant at the age of eighteen, 
but age counted little in these days when the country 
itself was young. Experience, coolness of judgment, 
and bravery were qualifications that offset those of 
extreme youth. It was the era of young men — young 
men in politics, young men in business life, and young 
men in the service of their country, who builded its 
glories and successes into a monument of the times 
emblazoned with the records of brave deeds not to be 
forgotten while the nation is a nation, and the flag 
they fought for floats above us. It might be well to 
try to understand the reasons why young men should 



i8 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

be placed in such responsible positions as they filled 
in the early part of this century. In the first place, 
the lack of education among the lower classes of the 
people, from which were drawn the ordinary sailor 
before the mast, was a great drawback to advancement 
of men from the ranks. Probably the majority of 
them could read and write, but a youth whose prepara- 
tion for service at sea embraced the study of mathe- 
matics and navigation, enabling him to work a vessel's 
course, and determine latitude and longitude by the 
sun or any of the heavenly bodies, soon found him- 
self at the head of men whose experience afloat might 
equal the sum of his entire life. The early experience of 
the midshipmen was of the most practical kind, and 
the officer of a ship, besides being a navigator, must 
perforce be able to understand and perform the duties 
of the commonest sailor. Thus he gained their re- 
spect, and they knew that they could trust him; for, 
with all his knowledge of things they did not under- 
stand, he regarded things from their point of view also. 
But to return to our hero. In 1804 we find him, 
then, in the Mediterranean under the same commander 
as before, and on board one of the frigates engaged 
in the reduction of Tripoli. So well had he conducted 
himself, and such trust had Captain Campbell found 
him worthy of, that a few days before his nineteenth 
birthday he was appointed to the command of the 
Nautilus, a little schooner attached to the squadron, 



THE MIDSHIPMAN. 19 

and in her he had numerous adventures worth relat- 
ing. To give a recounting of all of them would be 
to write a separate history of the war with Tripoli, 
and so we give but a short account of the connection 
of. Perry's command with one of the most daring en- 
terprises of all naval history. 

There was a group of young men, all junior ofHcers 
of the American fleet, scarcely more than boys, who 
vied with each other in deeds of daring and boldness. 
Probably rashness might be a good word to use in 
connection with some of their doings, for apparently 
they acted upon impulse, and counted no odds in many 
cases where older and wiser heads would have dictated 
prudence. In the little cabin of the Nautilus were 
gathered a group of young men, all smooth-shaven, 
ruddy of cheek and bright of eye. But a year or two 
previously they had been rollicking youngsters to- 
gether in the steerage; but now most of them had 
epaulets on their left shoulders. The tallest of them 
could scarcely stand erect, so low were the deck beams 
overhead. Perry was sitting at the head of the table. 
He spoke to a slender lad with aquiline features and 
light hair, who sat beside him with his chin in the 
hollow of his hand. 

" How far in do you suppose we can go before 
discovery, Somers? " he asked. 

" It all depends," was the answer, given in a dreamy 
manner, as if the lad's thoughts were far away. " I'm 



20 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

going in until I get bows on to something that will 
stop me. Of course, you fellows won't go any farther 
than the mouth of the harbor. I hope that the night's 
dark, and the wind for the nor'west." 

'* Has the commodore decided what night we are 
going to try it? " put in a handsome curly-headed 
young fellow, placing his hand on Somers's shoulder. 

" To-morrow night, I take it," was the rejoinder; 
" we'll probably get our orders in the morning." 

One of the ship's messengers here appeared at the 
door of the cabin. " Boat's alongside, sir," he said, 
touching his cap. 

" Then we'd better be going," said Decatur. 

The young commander arose and escorted his 
guests to the deck, and they left the side with all 
the usual ceremonies, and shoved ofif into the dark- 
ness. But Perry stood there leaning against the rail 
for some minutes before going below. It seemed hard 
to imagine that it was but ten years before that he 
and his father had sat under the shade of the maples 
while he listened to the tale that had so thrilled him. 
He had lived not a few stories himself since that day, 
and now here he was in acting command of his own 
vessel, with responsibilities upon his shoulders, and 
men to jump at his very gesture of command. Some- 
how the expression on Somers's face haunted him — 
the sad, dreamy look, as if he realized for the first time 
fully what was before him on the morrow. He could 



THE MIDSHIPMAN. 21 



yet hear the roll of the oars, and a laugh broke the still- 
ness, coming from the direction of the parting boats. 
He recognized that it was Lieutenant Decatur, and 
then there came another musical laugh. It was Richard 
Somers this time. Perry turned and went down to 
the cabin. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE FIRE-SHIP. 



Perhaps no vessel ever bore a more fitting name 
or one more suited to her calling than did the bomb- 
ketch Intrepid, She is inseparably connected with the 
names of the bravest, and she marks one of the most 
daring enterprises of all history.* 

The next day after the meeting recorded in the 
last chapter was the 4th of September. All day long 
boats were plying from the flagship to and fro to the 
ketch that lay at her anchor well down in the water, 
for her load was heavy. Before evening she had in 
her hold one hundred barrels of gunpowder and one 
hundred and fifty shells with fuses cut short to fire 
within a second. Lieutenant Henry Wadsworth was 
chosen by Somers to accompany him as second in 
command. Six men were to come from the Con- 
stitution's crew, and four were to be chosen from 
the crew of the Nautilug. With the two young 
officers the crew thus numbered twelve, and they 

* The reader may be referred to another vohime in the Young Heroes 
of Our Navy series, entitled Decatur and Somers, by Miss Molly Elliot 
Seawell. 

22 



THE FIRE-SHIP. 23 



were to sail that powder-laden vessel past the out- 
side batteries under the mouths of the guns of the 
Crescent fort and into the Tripolitan fleet and the 
mass of tangled shipping that lay moored beneath the 
shadows of the castle. Perry stood beside Lieutenant 
Somers when he called for volunteers to accompany 
him. He never could forget the few calm words that 
Somers used in portraying the dangers to be faced; 
and when he had stopped and asked the question, " Now 
my lads, those who will go, step one pace forward," 
Perry's heart gave a great bound, and he commenced 
to breathe like a runner calling upon his strength. Like 
a regiment at drill, the ship's company, the whole sixty- 
two of them, stepped one pace forward, and then, as if 
anxious to keep in the front rank, they came silently 
elbowing and jostling aft to the mast where the sacred 
line of the quarter-deck begins. Somers knew every 
man on the Nautilus by name. He looked down the 
Hne, and without changing a muscle of his face spoke 
quietly, " James Harris." A short, thickset man, with 
light blue eyes and a heavy, smooth-shaven jaw, stepped 
forward and touched his cap. " William Keith, James 
Sims, Thomas Tompline." The three sailors men- 
tioned stood beside Harris. They were fine creatures 
to look at, these hardy, fearless tars. The rest of the 
crew cast envious glances at them, and went forward 
to the forecastle. A fast, four-oared boat was lowered 
away, and the sailors and their commander made off 



24 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

for the ketch. Soon after dusk sail was made, and 
accompanied by the Nautikis, the Argus, and the 
Vixen, the Intrepid led the way toward the harbor 
mouth. As they reached it another vessel joined them. 
It was the Siren, under command of Lieutenant Stewart. 
She ventured in farther than the others, who soon 
lost sight of the fire-ship. Perry was standing near 
Lieutenant Reed, leaning against the shrouds, their 
eyes paining them from the strain of looking out into 
the darkness, when suddenly there came a glaring 
flash that lit the shores so that every minaret gleamed 
and every rope and sail could be seen on the vessels 
near about them. A deafening roar followed, and then 
all was still. The shore battery that had begun pop- 
ping away at Somers's vessel — for, alas! she had been 
discovered very soon — stopped. Not a sound was to 
be heard, except the voice of an old sailor on the 
forecastle praying in a fervent undertone, and now all 
listened — listened as ears have never listened before or 
since. 

" I hear them, I hear the oars," said a little mid- 
shipman, and all hands drew a breath. 

But no, it was merely the beating of the water 
against the bow; no boats came speeding back to the 
harbor mouth. In a few minutes it was known that, 
whether the enemy had been discomfited or not, the 
brave lads in the fire-ship had met their fate. The 
Constitution lying in the offing began to fire minute 



THE FIRE-SHIP. 



25 



guns. They sounded solemnly at intervals through 
the night. The news then came from the Constitu- 
tion's steerage that little midshipman Israel was miss- 
ing, and soon it was known that he had smuggled 
himself aboard the Intrepid in the flagship's cutter. 

Who had fired the train no one knew, and no one 
will ever know. For days a gloom hung over the 
fleet. Young Lieutenant Perry could never get the 
idea quite from his mind that Somers felt sure that 
night in the cabin of the Nautilus that he should never 
return. 

After the close of the war with Tripoli all the 
young officers who had so distinguished themselves 
found themselves back in their own country with very 
little to do. The United States was at peace with 
every nation, although strained relations were grow- 
ing up between our country and Great Britain, ow- 
ing to the continued impressment of American sailors. 

In 1808, in retaliation for England's declaration 
that the coasts of Europe were in a state of blockade, 
an embargo was laid upon their vessels coming to our 
own shores, and to Lieutenant Perry was given the 
command of seventeen gunboats at the Newport sta- 
tion. For two years he continued here, and in 1810 
he was given the command of the United States 
schooner Revenge, attached to Commodore Rogers's 
squadron at New London. In her he made a cruise 



26 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

to the southward. Off the coast of Georgia he was 
fortunate enough to be able to come to the rescue 
of the crew of the ship Diana, of Wiscosset. The 
seamanship and judgment he displayed in handling 
his own vessel brought him again before the eye of 
the public, and he was complimented by Congress 
upon his action. 

The Revenge was one of our crack sailing vessels 
of the smaller class. The young commander was 
more than proud of her, but ill fortune was soon to 
overtake him. In January, 1811, he sailed from 
Newport to New London, and when but a short 
way to the westward of Point Judith he ran into 
a dense fog, as he recorded in a letter to a friend at 
the time, " the thickest. Lord knows, I shall ever 
see, or, God grant, shall surround any vessel in dan- 
gerous waters." A pilot was on board who knew 
well the coast, and under his directions the Revenge 
crept slowly along through the impenetrable mists. 
Perry himself, becoming a little anxious, thought it 
better to work off shore more to the southward. The 
pilot declared at first that he knew well his where- 
abouts, and could take the vessel into the mouth of 
the Thames with his eyes shut and by the lead alone. 

There was a heavy swell on at the time, and the 
lead showed deep water. Suddenly a man at the 
bow shouted back the startling words, " Breakers 
ahead!" Nothing could be seen, but the sound of 



THE FIRE-SHIP. 27 



tumbling waters was heard plainly. The Revenge 
was thrown up into the wind, and the anxious youno- 
officer once more addressed the pilot. " Where are 
we, sir? " he asked sternly. The poor man appar- 
ently had not only lost his bearing, but his mind. 
In his fright and horror his teeth began to chatter. 

" I — I do not know, sir," he faltered, and he al- 
most collapsed upon the deck. 

Immediately the anchor was dropped, but with 
the set of the tide the Revenge drifted down upon 
the reef, and in a few minutes she struck, stern fore- 
most. The swell hove her farther in, and despite all 
the efforts to kedge her off she was soon driven 
broadside down, and the great waves began to break 
along her bulwarks. Boats were lowered, and it 
was ascertained that she lay off the mouth of the 
Pawcatuck River. To the northward lay what is 
known as Watch Hill. 

The good judgment of Perry was now shown. 
Nothing, he perceived, could keep his vessel from 
destruction, and he determined to save as much 
property as he possibly could. Soon all boats were 
out. The personal belongings of officers and crew 
were taken ashore; the sails and spars were put 
over the side; even the guns were placed on rafts, 
and the smaller ones taken ashore in boats, and be- 
fore the vessel began to show signs of breaking up 
he had stripped her and dismantled her of almost 



28 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

everything; nothing but a sheer hulk lay there, to be 
devoured by the hungry sea. 

Perry demanded a court of inquiry into his con- 
duct upon this occasion, despite the fact that he was 
reheved of blame by all his officers and men. The 
court, after a full investigation, decided that his con- 
duct was not only free from blame but deserving 
of great praise. So, although he lost his ship, he 
lost nothing of his reputation. 

Again he returned to Newport, and here he mar- 
ried a Miss Mason, the beautiful daughter of Dr. 
Mason of that city. But during this time war with 
England was becoming more and more of a certain- 
ty, and when it was declared, to young Perry was 
again given the command of a flotilla of gunboats sta- 
tioned for the protection of Rhode Island waters. 
It was not a very active position, and the situation 
of being practically unemployed was extremely gall- 
ing to a man of his ambition and keen desires. So, 
hearing of the organization of the naval forces 
under the command of Commodore Chauncey upon 
the lakes, he solicited permission to join them, and 
was ordered to repair to Sackett's Plarbor, on Lake 
Ontario, where part of the fleet was being fitted out. 



CHAPTER IV. 

ON THE LAKES. 

It was a fortunate thing that the United States 
Government perceived very early the importance of 
securing the command of the Great Lakes. Although 
the country that they bordered upon was wild in the 
extreme, and both shores were thronged with hostile 
and semi-hostile Indians, nevertheless the few settle- 
ments that had grown up in the wilderness were of 
great importance to the United States, and the lakes 
were the key to the possession of the power upon our 
Northwestern frontier. 

In the month of October, 1812, Commodore 
Chauncey, whom the Government had chosen as the 
man best fitted for the purpose, had proceeded to 
Lake Ontario. The long, wearisome march through 
the wilderness of the force that accompanied him 
would make a history in itself; but at last he arrived 
upon the shores of the great waters, and found him- 
self in command of about seven hundred seamen and 
one hundred and fifty marines. When they arrived, 
a strange state of affairs existed. Shipbuilders and 

carpenters had been at work for some months. From 

29 



30 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

green timber and newly felled trees they had con- 
structed a number of vessels, and out of the primitive 
forest had made shipyards, and the noise of hammer 
and saw resounded from daylight to dark. But the 
prospects for success were extremely gloomy. One of 
the first vessels launched, a brig named Adams, after 
the illustrious patriot of Massachusetts, had fallen into 
the hands of the British soon after the unfortunate 
surrender of the American General Hull, who, for 
some reason best known to himself and never fully 
explained, had turned over the forces at his command 
to the British almost without striking a blow. Owing 
to the early descent of winter, but little could be done 
in the way of placing the American fleet upon a war 
footing, and the spring of the year 1813 found 
the British in almost undisputed control of the water 
ways. But several incidents had occurred during this 
time which it is not possible to pass by in this connec- 
tion without a mention, and one of these is the cap- 
ture of the British brigs Detroit and Caledonia, the 
former being the name that the enemy had given to 
the Adams after she had fallen into their hands; and 
although this has little to do with the story of Perry 
himself, it tells an interesting chapter of what hap- 
pened, and shows the caliber of the men that he was 
subsequently called to command. The British had 
built and manned several forts composed of logs and 
wood, on the northern shore, and as bases of supplies 



ON THE LAKES. 31 

they served good purpose in the forays and expedi- 
tions against the Americans to the southward. On 
the 7th of October the Detroit and the Caledonia 
sailed down the lake and anchored under the guns of 
Fort Erie. Lieutenant Elliot (of whom more here- 
after) was at Buffalo, superintending the purchase and 
outfitting of some vessels that it was intended should 
be attached to the American flotilla. The news was 
brought to him that the British vessels had been 
sighted and were lying at anchor within view of the 
American shore. Immediately he rode out to the en- 
campment of General Smyth and informed him of the 
circumstance, and asked permission to organize a cut- 
ting-out party and capture both ships by surprise 
under the cover of darkness. General Smyth listened 
attentively to the plan, and then shook his head doubt- 
fully. 

" I doubt, sir," said he, " whether there are above 
a score of men in my command who can pull an oar, 
or who would be of the slightest use to you in a boat 
attack. I can not order my carpenters and shipbuilders 
to your support, for their services are too valuable to 
be risked in such a venture." 

" It is indeed a shame for such a chance to be 
passed by without attempting something," responded 
Lieutenant Elliot, " for information has been brought 
to me that, although the Detroit is manned by but 
fifty-six Englishmen, she has on board thirty American 



32 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

prisoners; and the Caledonia, with a crew of but 
twelve, has ten good Americans on board of her. The 
liberation of these men, even if accomplished by a 
boarding party of landsmen, would insure a force suf- 
ficient for the working of both vessels." 

But again General Smyth shook his head. A lands- 
man on the water, in his idea, was at much greater 
disadvantage than a seaman ashore. While this con- 
versation was in progress a figure was seen approach- 
ing upon a jaded horse, and immediately news was 
brought that a detachment of sailors, who had marched 
over five hundred miles from the Hudson River, was 
in camp some thirty-two miles away to the eastward. 
It was near nightfall, but nevertheless Elliot persuaded 
the General to dispatch a rider at once with orders 
for the seamen to hasten and take up again their weary 
tramp. Long before daylight the foot-sore Jackies 
were again on the move, and by noon they came strag- 
gling into the camp. A sorry-looking lot they were 
indeed. No one would ever have taken them for a 
ship's company of jaunty tars; their clothes were in 
rags, and by the hard and unaccustomed work of the 
past few weeks they had been worn almost to skin 
and bone. They bore no arms, and some of them 
were so weak that they could scarce keep on their feet, 
and leaned upon one another for support. The well- 
fed soldiers looked at them with pity. They appeared 
to be more like candidates for the hospital than men 



ON THE LAKES. 33 



from whom a fight might be expected. It seemed im- 
possible to call upon these men for further exertion; 
it seemed cruel to ask them to perform even the light- 
est duty. But Elliot knew the stuff that they were 
made of. Under the direction of the carpenters, two 
small boats carrying about fifty men apiece had been 
prepared for active service. Smyth, who had inspected 
the forlorn detachment with Elliot, again looked ex- 
tremely dubious. 

" When do you suppose that these poor fellows will 
be ready or able to perform any work? " he asked, 
after he had carefully looked over the band of unarmed 
and dusty wayfarers, mere tramps and vagrants, to all 
appearances. 

" This very day," Elliot responded, " and by to- 
morrow morning I will have those ships, or know the 
reason why." 

When a sailor is expected to perform any espe- 
cially arduous duty, the first thing that his officers do 
is to see that he is well fed, and an extra feeding means 
that extra work is intended for him. Hence the royal 
spread that was provided for the almost exhausted 
sailors might have w^arned them that their services were 
soon to be made use of. Three hours after their ar- 
rival in camp the poor fellows were told that they 
would have to forego sleep and rest, for orders were 
given immediately for a picked body of them to man 
the two boats, and, without being fully informed of 



34 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

the service ahead of them, they were crowded on 
board. It was then found that in the whole detach- 
ment there were no boarding pikes, cutlasses, or battle- 
axes, weapons with which they were familiar and knew 
well how to use. Only twenty pistols could be pro- 
cured; muskets in their hands were of little use, as 
they were but little acquainted with this style of 
weapon. The boats proceeded a short distance down 
Buffalo Creek, and then were made fast to the bank. 
General Smyth had attached two small companies of 
infantry, numbering twenty-five, to each boat to aid the 
sailors in their expedition. It seemed almost heart- 
less to call upon the latter to make any movement. 
Lying huddled together in their dusty rags they slept 
like dead men. But shortly after midnight they were 
aroused, and those most capable of exertion were 
placed upon the thwarts, the oars were manned, and 
with the sluggish current they pulled out into the 
waters of the lake. For two hours steadily they rowed, 
and when a poor fellow would fall over at his work 
another was ordered and urged into his place. At 
three o'clock the word was passed back from the bow 
that the two vessels were in sight. This seemed to 
stir all hands to action. Grumbling stopped, and with 
muffled oars and in dead silence the boats came gliding 
alongside — the leader making for the Caledonia, which 
was anchored nearer inshore, and the second boarding 
party aiming for the main chains of the Detroit. 




The midnight surprise of the Detroit. 



ON THE LAKES. 35 



Elliot had not reckoned wrongly. No doubt it had 
been a comfort to the men themselves to find that a 
naval officer was in charge of them. It inspired them 
with a confidence that otherwise they might not have 
had. The familiar orders awakened them from their 
lethargy. When the boats grated alongside of the un- 
suspecting ships every man was alert, and with a will 
they tumbled on board. Only one or two shots were 
fired. It was a complete surprise. Everything had 
been arranged- One party had been ordered to cut 
the cable, another to confine the Englishmen, and an- 
other to liberate the American prisoners in the hold; 
a fourth was to make sail upon the vessels, in order 
to carry them, if possible, up the river and out of the 
reach of the guns of Fort Erie. But alas! often the 
best-laid plans go astray, and the very thing needed 
to make the expedition a success failed them com- 
pletely. There was no wind. The sails hung listlessly 
against the masts, and as soon as the cables were cut 
by the swift blows of the axes both vessels gathered 
stern way and drifted with the current down the 
stream closer to the shore and almost into the mouths 
of the English guns. The fort immediately opened 
fire upon them with grape and solid shot at the closest 
range, but owing to the darkness and the suddenness 
of the surprise, perhaps, the gunners found little time 
to train their pieces effectively, for, strange as it may 
seem, the first volley did but little damage. Below 



36 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

the fort in the woods were scattered at intervals sev- 
eral pieces of flying artillery, and as the vessels came 
in sight, ambushed by the trees and hidden from view, 
they began a most effective fire. The Caledonia had 
managed to get out sweeps and had crept out into the 
river. Soon she was beached on a little point of land 
known as Black Rock, in as near a position as possible 
to one of the American batteries on the southern shore. 
But the Detroit, that Elliot now commanded, being 
the heavier vessel, could not be handled so easily. She 
drifted down the river, a target for every gun on shore, 
and at daybreak she found herself in a most unhappy 
position. By this time, even if the wind had sprung up, 
the sails would have afforded but slight assistance. 
They were riddled with shot, and most of the yards 
and stays were carried away. In sheer despair Elliot 
dropped a spare anchor from the bows and hove to 
short, within four hundred yards of an English battery, 
whose guns could be seen plainly extending above the 
ramparts of logs and earth. An officer in a red coat 
stepped out in plain view. 

" Surrender where you are," he shouted, " or I'll 
blow you out of water! " 

It looked as if there was nothing else to do but to 
comply. The overworked sailors listened for their 
commander's words. It would indeed seem hard if, 
after their toilsome march and the sudden and exact- 
ing duty, they should find themselves prisoners so soon. 



ON THE LAKES. 37 

Perhaps Elliot's reply can not be taken seriously, at 
all events his subsequent actions belied the words he 
spoke. 

" If you dare fire a shot into me," he cried, mount- 
ing the rail, " I'll bring all the prisoners on deck, and 
their blood be on your heads! " 

In reply, the guns spoke. But the prisoners were 
left where it was no doubt Elliot's intention they should 
be, down in the hold. 

Again the cable was cut, and the guns on his star- 
board hand were brought to bear with some effect 
upon the English battery. 

But bad news w^as brought to him. The ammuni- 
tion was exhausted! He had not enough left to fire 
a single round, and in addition it was learned that the 
pilot, a French Canadian, and the only person on 
board who understood anything of the currents and 
shoals of the river, had disappeared, probably slipping 
into the water and swimming ashore. Helpless and 
well-nigh hopeless, the Detroit drifted down the 
stream; but fortunately, before she had passed the bat- 
tery, she struck a cross current and headed for the 
southern shore. In fifteen minutes she grounded on 
Squaw Island, little more than halfway to safety. The 
stream ran swnftly in broken rapids between the island 
and the American side. The shots from the English 
guns could reach the stranded vessel, but despite the 
danger and while he was still under fire, Elliot lowered 



38 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

his boats, and placing the prisoners in them first, he 
succeeded in ferrying all his men to the shelter of the 
friendly land, the last boat reaching there at about 
eight o'clock in the morning. Before noon a company 
of British regulars rowed out from the Canadian shore, 
and in turn boarded the deserted vessel, but a party 
of volunteers, composed of a detachment of Yankee 
troops under Major Chapin, drove them back before 
the flames were started, for it was the intention of the 
English to set the Detroit on fire. In the afternoon 
they made another attempt, but were again repulsed. 
Then it was determined, owing to the fact that she 
was badly grounded, that the Americans in their turn 
should set her on fire. When they had relieved her 
of her stores and equipment as much as possible, she was 
given over to the flames. The little Caledonia was 
saved, and she proved to be no inconsiderable prize, 
for, in addition to her guns and well-stored magazine, 
she had on board a cargo of furs whose value has been 
estimated at one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. 

What would Elliot have done in this affair had it 
not been for the arrival of the men from the seacoast, 
the Yankee sailors, the brave fellows to whom the 
country owed almost everything before the war was 
ended? — these bold-hearted, tireless lads, who had ac- 
complished more than one could almost expect of 
human beings, who had fought without resting and 
gone wdthout sleep and food, willingly taking up their 



ON THE LAKES. 39 

duties, suffering hardships ahuost unequaled. These 
were the men that Perry found himself at the head of 
when he came to take command of the flotilla upon 
the lakes. How they behaved under him, and what 
they accomplished, make the best part of this story. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE YOUNG COMMANDER. 

It was in March, 1813, that OHver Hazard Perry 
received his appointment as master commandant, and 
shortly afterward his appHcation for active service on 
the lakes was granted, and he set out with all speed 
for Sackett's Harbor, at the port of Erie, where the 
American fleet was in progress of completion. He 
arrived there late in the month of March. Winter was 
still on; deep drifts were in the roads and woods; the 
ice still thick in the lakes. For a month the young 
officer found plenty to do in superintending the plac- 
ing of the armaments on board of the vessels and rush- 
ing the work in order to be ready to get afloat and in 
active service in early spring. On the 23d of April he 
learned of the intention of Commodore Chauncey and 
General Dearborn, in command of the troops, to at- 
tack Fort George, an English stronghold not far from 
Queenstown. On the 25th of April he proceeded from 
Sackett's Harbor and joined the commodore at Ni- 
agara, and no doubt his advice, his bravery, and skill 

were of the greatest benefit in effecting the reduction 
40 



THE YOUNG COMMANDER. 



41 



of the fort. The plans were exceedingly well arranged. 
On the night of the 26th, under cover of darkness, the 
fort had been reconnoitered and small buoys placed at 
varying distances in order to designate the positions 
that the American vessels should take in the action. 





LAKE 


1 










EURO y^ 






4 


jl 






f 


^~ 




Fort Georgell 


/ZaifUJ/ 


K^^ 


^ 




Port Dover 


--.■^^2:^^ 


j^ist.Clair ( 


•v/- 


y 






"-^, 


J B /'Buffalo 


// Maiden 


^^•^ 








^^^ 


^ Battle of \{ 
1 Lake Erie U 




^ 


^ 


% 




/"^^^ 


V* ;^ 


V 






^^_^-^^ Erie 




^\ o*PUT-IM-BAy 












Sandusky v ■ — 


— ^ 













Lake Erie. 

At three o'clock In the morning of the 27th the fleet 
started. The larger vessels, named the Madison, 
Oneida, and Lady of the Lake, took on board most of 
the heavy artillery and as many troops as they could 
carry. The rest of the attacking force crowded into 
the smaller boats, and by daylight the schooners had 
found their moorings and opened fire upon the ene- 
my's batteries. So well served and aimed were the 
guns that in ten minutes the return fire of the English 
was seen to be slacking, and before a quarter of an 
hour of cannonading they retreated back into the 



42 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

woods, abandoning their position. In the meantime 
the American infantry had been landed near one of the 
forts that had been reduced at a point called Two-mile 
Creek. The landing occurred without opposition, but 
the troops had not advanced far before they received 
a tremendous fire from the woods, and the British ap- 
peared in force along the edge of the steep bank up 
which the Americans were making their way. The 
schooners poured a withering fire into them over 
the heads of their own men and once more caused 
them to scatter. They retreated immediately to 
Fort George, where they blew up their magazines, 
and, setting fire to what stores they could not carry 
away, they made off in great haste to Queenstown. 
For some distance they were chased by the light 
infantry, but at last pursuit was abandoned, and 
the American forces joined together again at Fort 
George. 

Perry was practically a volunteer in this action; 
but the commodore referred to his services in the most 
highly flattering terms. He shunned no danger, and 
it was remarked that he must have worn a charm 
against bullets, for many times, regardless of his safe- 
ty, he had practically offered himself as a target, but 
the missiles scattered around him, leaving him un- 
scathed. 

All this preliminary description is absolutely neces- 
sary to the leading up to the happenings of the early 



THE YOUNG COMMANDER. 43 

fall, the glorious occasion when Perry won for himself 
the title that greeted him wherever he went during 
his lifetime, that of the " Hero of Erie." 

The day after the fall of Fort George, Perry was 
dispatched by the commodore with a body of fifty- 
five seamen to Black Rock, where he was ordered to 
take charge of the five vessels at that place and 
proceed with them at once to the port of Erie. 
He was urged to have the whole squadron prepared 
and ready for orders and action at the earliest pos- 
sible moment. With two hundred soldiers that 
General Dearborn placed on board the vessels at 
Black Rock, Perry sailed early in June, intending 
to join his little fleet with those already under his 
command at Erie. 

The British had two splendidly equipped and fast- 
sailing vessels waiting to intercept the little squadron. 
They were named the Lady Provost and the Queen 
Charlotte. At a place called Long Point, where the 
channel is exceedingly narrow, they lay anchored in 
midstream keeping a vigilant lookout; but their wake- 
fulness availed them nothing, for on a dark night Perry 
succeeded in passing them, drifting by within one hun- 
dred yards of the Queen Charlotte. Their chagrin at 
the escape of the flotilla they had considered already 
in their power can readily be imagined. 

In May Perry's largest vessels, which he named the 
Niagara and the Lawrence, were launched, and every 



44 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

exertion was made to complete their equipment and 
fit them for service. On July 226. the commodore 
arrived at the head of Lake Ontario and sent one hun- 
dred and seventy seamen down to Perry, who was glad 
enough to gain their services. Just at this time the 
English vessels were off the mouth of the port of Erie, 
within plain sight of the town. One or two of the 
American gunboats sailed out to reconnoiter them, and 
a few shots were exchanged at long range, without any 
damage being done to one side or the other. The 
vessels now under the command of the young com- 
modore, although he only held his title by courtesy, 
consisted of the Lawrence, Niagara, Caledonia, Ariel, 
Scorpion, and Somers. Two smaller vessels, named the 
Congress and Porcupine, were nearly completed, and 
were put in commission early in the month of Au- 
gust. The British squadron, hovering outside of 
the port, received information that caused them 
much delight; for they were well informed in re- 
gard to the progress in the construction of the 
American vessels, and knew well the difficulties which 
lay before them. 

It was known that the water on the long sandy bar 
crossing the mouth of the river was exceedingly shal- 
low, but a few inches over six feet, in the ordinary 
condition of the stream. The Niagara drew nine feet, 
and the Lawrence nine feet four inches, which rendered 
them absolutely useless, the English thought, and 



THE YOUNG COMMANDER. 45 

placed them in the position of stranded ships or prison- 
ers unless they could escape from their position. To 
dig a channel sufficiently wide and deep would be al- 
most a hopeless task, and so the English commodore 
chuckled to himself. But Perry went on with his 
preparations undisturbed, and as if entirely in igno- 
rance of the fact that he had become a laughing-stock 
for the British. At the appointed time the smaller ves- 
sels proceeded down stream and crossed the bar, and 
as soon as everything was in order the Niagara and 
the Lawrence followed them and anchored bow and 
stern but a few rods above where the shallows began. 
Four large scows were now towed downstream and 
placed one on either side of the imprisoned ships. The 
plugs were drawn from their bottoms, the water en- 
tered, and each scow sank until only a few inches of 
the bulwarks were above the surface. In this posi- 
tion they were secured by heavy beams thrust through 
the ports of the two vessels, the plugs were replaced, 
and then by means of pumps and active bailing the 
water in the scows was put over the side, and buoyantly 
they rose, lifting with tremendous power the vessels 
between them, and reducing their draft to such a meas- 
ure that in safety they crossed the bar, amid the shouts 
of the people on shore and the cheers of the sailors of 
the fleet. 

The feelings of the officers of his Majesty who had 
indulged in the hilarity before mentioned are not de- 



46 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

scribed in history, but soon they must have learned 
of the occurrence. 

Now Perry had the ships, but he lacked the men 
to handle them, and how could he secure sailors up 
there in the wilderness? There was but one way open 
for him, and that was to make them out of the rough 
material from which the troops (mostly militia) were 
drawn. He received permission to call for volunteers 
from among the Pennsylvania lads, and from the body 
who offered themselves he picked some seventy or 
eighty. The British blockading squadron had with- 
drawn, and Perry put out with this nondescript force 
and what actually amounted to a practice cruise. The 
men were exercised at the guns and taught such sea- 
manship as was considered necessary, and upon their 
return to Erie they were a little more handy and some- 
what acquainted with their duties, but yet they were a 
good deal like the wood of which the vessels was prin- 
cipally composed, a trifle green. 

On the last day in August orders were received to 
join with the land forces of General Harrison and assist 
in the reduction of the town of Maiden on the Canadian 
shore. In accordance with this plan Perry sailed, and 
held an interview with General Harrison, in which he 
succeeded in persuading the latter to detail some of 
his most expert riflemen on board the fleet to act in 
the capacity of marines, a force in which he was en- 
tirely deficient. The general, recognizing the useful- 



THE YOUNG COMMANDER. 47 

ness of such a corps, detailed seventy Kentuckians to 
go on board the ships, and these men subsequently 
rendered good accounts of themselves, as will be told. 

Owing to the fact that the Ohio had been dispatched 
to Erie after provisions, and that the Amelia (a 
little sailing craft) had been left behind because of the 
lack of men to man her, Perry's force now consisted 
of nine sail mounting in all fifty-four guns. In the 
harbor of Maiden lay the British fleet, smaller in the 
number of vessels but heavier in armament, consisting 
of six vessels carrying sixty-six guns. It was intended 
that Perry should tempt them to leave the protection 
of the forts and meet him in the open waters of the 
lake, and that General Harrison should then attack 
the town by land. But the British commodore re- 
fused the offer to engage, although the Yankee squad- 
ron sailed up and down in plain sight, flying all their 
bunting. 

At last, seeing that it was fruitless, the plan was 
abandoned, and Perry sailed back into Put-in-Bay, dis- 
tance some thirty-four miles. Here he dropped anchor. 
It had been thought unwise to risk a battle on land 
until the supremacy of the water ways should be settled 
by a decisive engagement. Without doubt this same 
thought was in the minds of the British, and on their 
part every preparation was hastened to place their ves- 
sels in condition for the coming struggle. In speaking 
of the period of suspense that preceded the great fight 



48 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

of the loth of September, a contemporary refers to the 
attitude of the commanders of the two squadrons as 
follows: 

" What must have been their reflections during this 
interval we will not undertake to conjecture. There are 
few spectacles more sublime, and none more impres- 
sive, than that of two hostile armies, or two hostile 
fleets, situated in the neighborhood of each other, re- 
posing only as preparatory to commencing the awful 
work of death. It is an awful pause, and a calm which 
appears most profound from the minds associating it 
with what is to follow, just as the stillness is the greatest 
which precedes the tempest. This scene is more sub- 
lime and impressive than that of the same hostile parties 
when engaged in battle. Then other sensations are 
produced — those of horror and sympathy, of hope and 
fear — all the passions being greatly agitated. But dur- 
ing the repose which precedes an engagement the 
mind is cool, unagitated, and susceptible of deep im- 
pressions from the impending storm, upon which the 
fate of thousands of our fellow-men, and sometimes the 
destiny of nations, may depend. If such would be the 
impressions of an observer, what must be the feelings 
of those who are about to engage themselves in the 
* bloody strife ' ? " 

All this is very fine old-fashioned writing; but it 
was indeed a momentous occasion, for, although sepa- 
rate actions had been fought at sea, upon no occasion 



THE YOUNG COMMANDER. 49 

had fleets of both countries been engaged. The Eng- 
lish officers were men of experience in such affairs, 
men who had served with Nelson, well versed in line 
maneuvering and strategy. On the other hand, the 
Americans were commanded by young officers, few of 
whom had seen actual service, and the sailors and 
landsmen were all untried. Perry felt that the honor 
and reputation of his country were in his keeping. He 
knew that the conflict could not be long deferred, but 
he did not anticipate that the English would be the 
first to move in the game. 

Shortly after sunrise on the loth of September a 
messenger knocked at his cabin door. The English 
fleet was in sight! 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE FLAGSHIP. 

Master-Commandant Perry was up in an instant. 
He hurried into his uniform and ascended to the deck. 
It was yet gray in the morning; a faint Hne of rosy 
light stretched above the hilltops to the eastward, 
promising the dawning of a glorious day. A thin mist 
hung over the water, scarcely moved by the light 
breeze that was blowing from the northward. Every- 
thing looked so calm and peaceful and so common- 
place that the young commodore could scarcely bring 
himself to believe that this was to be the most impor- 
tant crisis of his life. There is an unreality attached 
to early dawn, with its broadening, lifting twilight, 
and the change which comes swiftly, until suddenly, 
as it were, like a burst of music after a few distant 
and preliminary chords, the great day opens. On 
shore the news had not spread among the houses, and 
they stood there gray and silent. From a few chimneys 
rose little columns of smoke, showing that the early 
housewife had begun her daily duties. But nearer to 
hand, among the vessels of the fleet all was bustle and 

preparation. There were hoarse shouts and orders, the 
50 



THE FLAGSHIP. 51 



cheeping of block and tackle, hails and counter-hails, 
and the thrum of oars, as the small boats pHed busily 
back and forth from one vessel to another. 

Perry had sent orders for Lieutenant Elliot to re- 
pair on board the Lawrence as soon as possible; at 
once Elliot came alongside. He was evidently labor- 
ing under much excitement. 

" The day has come at last! " he said. 

" The one we have long been wishing for," Perry 
returned. 

There was very little time to lay out a plan of 
campaign, but nevertheless it was arranged that the 
vessels should keep as w^ell in line as possible, and 
that the flagship should be in the van. She was 
the largest of the Yankee fleet, and most suited for 
the honor. Perry saw Elliot over the side, and 
then he turned to Lieutenant Brooks, a tall and ex- 
ceedingly handsome young ofificer, and after ordering 
him to make sail and signal the rest of the fleet to 
follow, he asked if the flag that he had ordered had 
been finished. 

" I have it here," Brooks returned, " and the 
quartermaster is bending it to the halyards." 

Perry gave a smile of satisfaction as an instant 
later a great blue flag rose swiftly to the masthead. On 
it in large white letters that could be read at almost 
the distance of a mile were the last words of the brave 
James Lawrence, " DON'T GIVE UP THE SHIP! " 



52 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

It rippled out bravely in the light morning air, and 
as the Lawrence gained headway and sailed past the 
others to take her position as the leader every boat 
broke out into cheers. Now from the shore these 
cheers were answered, for the people had begun to 
gather on the hillsides, and from several tall trees flew 
little American flags. Yet there was nothing warlike 
in the scene. It might have been, to all appearances, 
gazing at it from a distance, a gala festival. But on 
board the ships things wore a different look. The 
men had a fierce impetuosity about them as they 
worked or spoke. Some were palpably nervous, and 
the piles of shot and the charges of powder that were 
being brought up from the magazines showed what 
business was expected. Beyond the mouth of the bay 
appeared the English fleet, a beautiful sight indeed. 
The sun caught their sails and changed their colors 
from dull gray to pink. Their flags were flying, and 
they were approaching in one long line, the largest 
leading. Their numbers and their strength were 
known to the American officers. 

The first vessel was the Detroit, carrying nineteen 
guns; next came the Queen Charlotte, carrying seven- 
teen guns; then the Lady Provost, named in compli- 
ment to the wife of Sir Charles Provost, the English 
leader; then followed the brig Hunter, of ten guns; the 
sloop Little Belt, of three; and the small schooner 
Chippewa, that boasted of but one. The breeze was so 



THE FLAGSHIP. 53 



light, and the fleets were so far apart, that it would 
be some hours before the engagement could possibly 
begin. Perry turned as he suddenly heard a question 
addressed to him. He looked down at the figure that 
stood at his elbow, literally and not figuratively, as it 
reached scarcely higher — a bright little boy of but thir- 
teen or fourteen, in white canvas trousers, and a wide 
black tie loosely flowing in the wind over his shoulder. 
He wore a short roundabout jacket with brass buttons, 
and his long curly hair stood out on each side of his big 
midshipman's cap. It was Perry's little brother, a boy 
of great spirit. He resembled the young commodore 
in coloring and feature. It seemed hardly possible that 
any one so young and innocent could be brought 
into such doings, or asked to face the dangers of 
deadly action. He pointed his hand out over the 
bulwarks. 

"See those wild ducks," he said; "they look as 
if they were telling us to come on — don't they? " 

Some brilliantly colored wild fowl, alarmed by the 
approach of the fleet, clattered up out of the water 
and swept past the flagship's bows, heading directly 
for the English sail. It is a strange thing that in mo- 
ments of great suspense or excitement small incidents 
like this impress themselves upon the mind. The boy 
had no thought of approaching danger; he had no 
idea what death and destruction he might soon be wit- 
nessing. His trust and dependence and his admira- 



54 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

tion for his elder brother made him feel perfectly safe. 
Somehow it reminded the young commodore of the 
way he felt when on the General Greene with his own 
father in command. 

"Youngster," he said, "we may soon be fighting; 
stay close by me." 

" I'll be right here," returned the little fellow, 
" where you can find me." 

The Lawrence had now gained the position that 
Perry wished her to hold, and he turned to look back 
at the line of his little fleet. He had more vessels 
in his squadron than the English in theirs, as we have 
said, but the guns he carried were less in number, 
amounting to a total of fifty-four, while, as it was 
afterward proved, the enemy mounted sixty-three. 
Not far from the Lawrence sailed the brig Niagara, 
that Elliot commanded. Like the flagship, she car- 
ried twenty guns, all carronades, useless at long 
range, but terribly destructive when within pistol 
shot. Just beyond the Niagara was the Caledonia, 
the vessel that had been captured; she mounted 
three guns. The schooner Ariel mounted four, and 
then followed the gunboats in a body. The Scor- 
pion and the Somers carried two guns each on their 
unprotected decks, for the bulwarks were scarcely 
the height of a man's knee; the Tigress and the 
Porcupine, schooners also, each carried one carron- 
ade. A jaunty little single-sticker, the Tripp, of one 



THE FLAGSHIP. 55 



gun, sailed along with them. It was but a toy 
fleet, to all appearances. 

The Englishmen had the weather gauge, and were 
coming bravely on as fast as the light air would per- 
mit them. But at ten o'clock the breeze died away, 
and although both sides were eager to begin the fight- 
ing, they drifted at safe distance, watching one an- 
other and longing to be at it. Then in a few min- 
utes the wind, which had veered to the southwest, 
again changed direction, as it often does on the inland 
waters, and blew offshore from the southeast, giving 
the American squadron the advantage that had been 
held heretofore by the enemy, that of the weather 
gauge. Slowly they forged along toward the waiting 
English fleet. The order was now slightly changed. 
The two little gunboats Scorpion and Ariel were now 
in the lead but a pistol-shot distance ofif the port bow 
of the Lawrence, whose motto flag was fluttering and 
tossing in the bright sunlight. Soon they were leading 
the rest by over a quarter of a mile, and it was evi- 
dent that one would be the first to engage the enemy. 
The supense increased. The men were all at their 
quarters; some of the old sailors had stripped them- 
selves to the waist, as they did in the old-time 
style. Here was a gun crew standing quietly about 
their piece; and lining the bulwarks were a crowd 
of motley uniforms — riflemen from Kentucky in fringed 
shirts and buckskin leggings stood next to regular 



56 



THE HERO OF ERIE. 



soldiers in their brass and leather shakos, militia- 
men in homemade uniforms, nervously fingering their 
clumsy flintlock muskets, but all bravely determined 
to stand by their young commander to the last. Down 



a 




• 


• 


P 


•% \.m\x. ^wr i 


'- 


M \.KW »«\.voy\ 






ft ' 


4r^CK\.t;>Dn>N 


» WWWMft. 




Atinw^T yJy\.N-N«.tSM "\^^ 


^ /^K«V^V X 









Diagram of the battle, No. i. 



in the little cockpit the surgeon. Usher Parsons, had 
spread his tables and made ready his shining knives 
and instruments. There was scarcely head room in 
his deadly workshop, and alas! owing to the light 
draught of the vessel, it was not, as it should have 
been, safe below the water line. 

Lieutenants Yarnell and Brooks were on the quar- 
ter-deck, talking in loud voices and counting the mo- 
ments when the first gun should be fired. They had 
not long to wait. At fifteen minutes before twelve 



THE FLAGSHIP. 57 



the nearest Englishman, the Detroit, opened fire, dis- 
charging a single gun. The aim was good; the ball 
struck with a shock in the Lawrence's bow. It did 
no damage, but a most unfortunate circumstance oc- 
curred. The slight breeze died away at this in- 
stant, and it fell dead calm. It had been Perry's 
intention boldly to break the British line and to 
have the rest of his vessels follow him into close 
action; and it must be stated in all justice that close 
action was what the British commodore, brave Cap- 
tain Barclay one of the men who had fought with 
Nelson at the Nile, desired most also. He was not 
the man to shirk this style of fighting. For a minute 
there was a pause. Perry looked back at the rest of 
his vessels and almost groaned. There they lay, 
swinging hither and thither, with their sails hanging 
lifeless, too far off to be of the slightest assistance to 
him. Again the Detroit fired, and now those who 
had never been in action before caught their first sight 
of blood. The ball struck the edge of one of the 
after ports, partly dismounted the gun, killed the man 
standing at the lock, and filled the air with a shower 
of splinters. A man staggered aft with both hands 
clasped about his neck, where he had been pierced as 
though by an arrow. One of the flying bits of wood 
caught Lieutenant Yarnell on the brow; he staggered 
slightly, and dashed away the blood. Taking a ban- 
danna handkerchief out of his pocket, he tossed his big 



5 



58 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

hat to one side and tightly bound up the wound with- 
out a word. Yarnell was dressed Hke a common sailor; 
in fact, few of the officers wore any distinguishing 
uniform, and Perry was bareheaded during most of 
the engagement. In reply to this death-dealing shot, 
one of the guns of the forward division was fired, 
and then it was seen how horrible the position of 
the flagship was at the moment. The carronade 
that had replied was impotent; the ball carried 
scarcely more than two thirds of the way to its 
mark, and plashed harmlessly into the water. An- 
other was fired, with the same result. Perry turned 
to Brooks. 

*' Cease firing," he said ; " it is wasting powder and 
shot. O God, give us some wind, that we may come 
up with them! " 

But no wind came, and the Detroit with her 
long guns kept up her practice gunnery. The other 
vessels joined in. But for ten minutes not a lock- 
string was pulled on board the Lawrence. Blocks 
and rigging fell from aloft, splinters were everywhere, 
pools of blood covered the decks, wounded men 
were being carried down the hatchways. What a 
frightful thing it must have been to witness on this 
beautiful, bright day, with the sky free from a single 
cloud, and the sunshine lighting the hills and tree tops 
along the shore! The dead soon began to encum- 
ber the decks, and it became a horrible necessity 







^ ■= ■§ 



THE FLAGSHIP. 59 



to put them over the side, and soon the water in 
close proximity was dotted with floating-, mangled 
bodies. 

But there was no thought of surrender in the 
mind of a single man on board. All Perry wished 
and prayed for was to gain a position where he 
could fight back in return, and with delight he saw 
that he was drifting nearer and nearer. In a few 
minutes it would be " give " as well as " take." The men 
still stuck to their posts. Signal flags were flying from 
the Lawrence's yardarm ordering the fleet in the rear 
to come up and support her, but the wind was yet 
too light; they could not approach. At five min- 
utes of twelve the Lawrence began to open fire, 
and the men who had hitherto remained silent started 
cheering. The rattle of musketry sounded along * 
her bulwarks. They were breathing their own smoke 
now, and no longer that of the enemy alone. Help- 
less, and unable to work a single sail — for every 
brace and bowline was shot away — the Yankee flag- 
ship drifted straight in among the British vessels. 
Her shots began to tell; the topmast of one of the 
English brigs came down to the deck. Yarnell was 
again wounded, and his features now were almost 
unrecognizable. Perry ordered him below to the 
surgeon, but in two minutes he returned. From 
the shore and from the other vessels, which were 
doing their best to come into action, the scene was 



6o THE HERO OF ERIE. 

grand, if terrible. There the flagship floated; her 
motto flag still flying, single-handed engaging the 
English fleet. From every side came flashes and the 
thundering discharges. She was assailed from all 
directions, but she would not down. 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE BATTLE. 

There were now seven guns that Perry found he 
could use in replying to the concentrated fire of the 
English, who had thirty-tw^o playing upon his al- 
most defenseless vessel. Seeing that they could 
now fight back, the crew had settled themselves, 
and were taking the death and destruction dealt every- 
where about them as if it were a matter of course. 
A militiaman who had never been on board a craft 
larger than a flatboat before in all his life, and had 
never till three or four days previously seen a square- 
rigged ship, mounted into the rigging; holding his 
rifle under his arm, he ascended to the crosstrees, 
and squatting there began to load and fire with as 
much carelessness of his surroundings as if the feat 
had been practiced by him time and time before. 

Seeing that it was impossible to hasten the arrival 

of the other vessels, who were doing their best to 

get into action, and knowing that the surrender of 

the Lawrence would be a death-blow to all chances 

of ultimate victory. Perry determined to hold out 

to the last. He did not have to tell this to the 

6i 



62 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

noble crew who served under him; they felt it and 
knew it as well as he. Never was there a sign of 
the white feather shown. The vessel was quivering 
beneath the blows she was sustaining. Some of the 
English shots went clean through her, carrying the 
deadly splinters in their wake. 

Turning to give an order to Lieutenant Yarnell, 
the commodore almost gasped in horror, for the 
lieutenant's features were again almost indistinguish- 
able. He had received another wound in the face, 
and was bleeding so that he was almost blinded. 

" Go below, sir, to the surgeon," Perry ordered 
the second time. 

Yarnell hesitated. " Time is precious, sir," he 
mumbled. But upon Perry's repeating the command 
he hurried down the ladder. 

Lieutenant Brooks, who was in charge of the after 
division, came up. A grim smile was on his hand- 
some face. " So far, so good, sir," he said. " See 
how our men fight! I believe we'll hold them till 
the rest come up." 

"God grant so!" Perry replied fervently. 

At this minute three men, who were serving one 
of the most effective guns, came down together in 
a heap. Their piece had just been sighted. Brooks 
stepped forward hastily and pulled the lanyard. It 
failed to go off. The captain of the gun, an old 
sailor, with grizzled hair and rugged features, smeared 



THE BATTLE. 63 



and blackened with gunpowder, began fumbling at 
the lock. Perry stepped close to him. 

"What's the matter here, my man?" he asked, 
in the same cool tone that he might have used at 
drill. 

"My piece behaves shamefully, shamefully!" the 
old sailor replied with the petulance of a child. 

" Stand to one side, my lad," put in Lieuten- 
ant Brooks. 

As he stepped up he drew a pistol from his belt, 
and placing the muzzle close to the priming pulled 
the trigger. The roar and explosion followed. 

" That found the mark, sir! " cried the old sailor. 
" Now, my hearties, run her in! " 

Lieutenant Brooks and little Midshipman Perry 
laid hold of the tackle, as the old sailor picked up 
the sponge, for the gun was now short-handed. But 
their places were soon filled by the gun's crew from 
one of the forward divisions whose piece had been 
dismounted. As they stepped over the bodies of 
their dead comrades they all looked in the face of the 
young captain — in fact, everywhere he found all eyes 
directed at him; not mutely appeaHng to him to 
save them or stop the appalling death, but as if 
they said, " Say but the word, sir; we're here to do 
our duty, and we'll die for it." It was the old 
morituri te salutant, only it was for a nobler, grander 
purpose than to amuse the rabble of the arena side. 



64 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

Their country was the stake, their countrymen's 
eyes were on them. They could not and would 
not flinch; even the wounded who could stand tried 
to struggle back to their posts. It was grand, it 
was sublime; it was a war in all its horrible cruelty. 

Again Brooks spoke to Perry. 

" Noble fellows, noble fellows," he murmured, the 
tears standing in his eyes. " See," he suddenly ex- 
claimed, " here comes my little negro Sam! " 

A colored boy of about fourteen years of age ran 
up from below with a charge of powder in his hands. 
Brooks spoke to him encouragingly, and the little fel- 
low grinned from ear to ear. 

" You're a good boy, Sam. Don't let that gun be 
waiting." 

" No, massa, we keeps her barkin' all de time." 

Suddenly Perry felt a touch upon his hand. He 
looked down. It was his little brother who had grasped 
him, not in fear, but half unconsciously, as a child in 
times of excitement shows confidence and trust in a per- 
son whom it loves. A strange picture the two must 
have presented, both brothers so young, and yet, 
with such a difiference in their ages, standing there 
hand in hand. All at once the midshipman let go 
his grasp and gave a cry of horror. Something 
heavy struck against Perry's side and was flung 
across the deck; he turned quickly and saw a horrible 
sight. There lay poor Brooks, who had been hurled 



THE BATTLE. 65 



against the rail. A round shot had struck him in the 
hip; what had been a fine, stalwart man was now 
a shattered wreck. His face was contracted, and in 
spite of all his efforts he could not control a cry 
of anguish and despair. The agony he suffered was 
terrible. Perry hastened to him. 

" I'm done for, sir," he cried, " I'm done for. 
Have me shot, have me put out of this misery; for the 
sake of mercy, kill me!" 

" Hush — be brave," Perry cried, grasping the lieu- 
tenant's hand. " Be brave, old friend." 

As if all this was not enough to unnerve even the 
stoutest heart, at this very moment the little mulatto 
boy came running by. He stopped, and saw who it 
was upon the deck. The shriek he gave made some 
of the men at the guns turn around and look. 

" Massa, O my massa, dey's done gone killed you! " 
he cried, bursting into a paroxysm of grief. 

Brooks's face was now set and calm. " Be quiet, 
Sam," he said. " Go, do your duty." 

Two sailors under Perry's orders picked up the 
mangled body from the deck and carried it below; 
but the little negro boy did not cease his lamen- 
tations. Maybe it was the force of habit that made 
him do what he did, but still crying out, " Massa, 
massa, oh, dey's killed my massa! " he picked up 
the lieutenant's heavy hat from the deck and fol- 
lowed the sailors and their burden down the ladder. 



66 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

In recounting war and the deeds that are done 
in battle, and the sights and sounds, it is necessary 
to bring out things as they happen. War may be 
glorious in its fruits and perhaps noble in its aims, 
but it is cruel and horrible, and to gain a picture 
of what it is it must be made so. There is noth- 
ing else to do but to treat it as reality — a grim, dread- 
ful reality, not to be misunderstood. 

Scarcely had Brooks been taken below, when this 
fact was forced again on Perry's mind. Yarnell was 
once more on deck. His head was swathed in red- 
stained bandages. 

" Can you let me have more men for the forward 
guns? " he asked. 

" You'll have to ask the surgeon for some of his 
assistants. Tell him I sent you," was Perry's reply. 

Yarnell disappeared. In a minute he returned, fol- 
lowed by two young lads fresh from their ghastly work 
below. In five minutes Yarnell again stood before 
Perry by the mast. His clothes were torn and he 
reeled a little on his feet. He had been wounded 
the fourth time! 

" Those men have all been killed," he said. 
" Let me have some more; we must keep that gun 
a-going." 

" I have no more men to give you," Perry an- 
swered quietly. 

Yarnell saluted, and tottered forward to his post. 



THE BATTLE. 67 



The roar of discharges now sounded in all direc- 
tions, for the Lawrence had drifted within half pistol- 
shot of the vessels of the fleet that surrounded her. 
It looked as if the combat could be sustained no longer. 
Purser Hamilton, who had been serving at a gun 
and was shot through the body, was taken below by 
two slightly wounded men. 

If the scene on deck was frightful, what must it 
have been down in that close, smoke-filled cockpit, 
crowded with wounded men, who lay in moaning 
huddles everywhere! Surgeon Usher Parsons was 
left all alone at his work. The cockpit was above 
the water line. Hamilton was placed beside the dy- 
ing Brooks, and turned and spoke to him. The 
latter asked for Perry. The pain had left him now, 
and he spoke calmly and collectedly. 

" If Perry's life is saved, he'll win us out of this," 
he said. 

Hamilton was about to answer him, when some- 
thing occurred so frightful and so unexpected that 
all thoughts were driven from his mind. Midship- 
man Henry Laub was on the table, having a ghast- 
ly wound in the shoulder dressed by the surgeon. 
With a crash a solid shot came through the side 
of the vessel and killed him where he lay. A Nar- 
ragansett Indian who sat leaning against one of the 
timbers was hurled by this same shot across the 
narrow space, and fell dead among a pile of wounded. 



68 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

And just at this moment the brave Brooks breathed 
his last. 

Up on deck there was scarcely a score of men 
uninjured. Perry looked about him and saw that 
every officer was wounded with the exception of 
himself and his little brother. Near by stood Midship- 
man Dulaney Forrest, who was nursing a bruised 
arm. A shot came in through an open port, glanced, 
struck the mast, and glanced again. Its force was 
almost spent, but it caught the midshipman full in 
the chest, and down he went. Perry bent over him. 

"Are you badly hurt, lad?" he asked anxiously. 

The boy struggled to his feet; the breath was almost 
knocked out of his body. 

" Not much, sir," he gasped, and then, thrusting 
his hand inside his waistcoat, he extricated something 
— it was the spent shot that had struck him! 

" This is my ball, I think, sir," he went on, and 
calmly slipped it into his breeches pocket. 

It is a strange thing that in moments of great 
excitement men take unusual happenings casually. 
There was no bravado in young Forrest's speech; 
he just expressed a thought that came into his 
mind. It was as simply done as it was simply said. 

Joy now came into Perry's heart. Looking over 
the shattered bulwarks, he saw that a slight breeze 
had sprung up, and that before it the fieet was 
coming down to help him, the Niagara leading and 







^ 



THE BATTLE. 69 



the gunboats trailing yet a long way astern of her. 
It had been almost two hours that he had been 
fighting single-handed. And now help was coming 
to him. He saw a chance also of taking advantage 
of the wind and creeping away from the two vessels 
that were harassing him most. Oh, if he could but 
make sail! Turning to Forrest, he ordered him to 
ask the surgeon to come up on deck. Usher Par- 
sons appeared. Perry spoke a few quick words to 
him, and he went below again. 

" Is there any man here," he cried, when he had 
reached the cockpit, "that is able to haul a rope? 
If so. Captain Perry would like to see him on deck." 

Five men, weak and gory, crawled out on hands 
and knees and went up the ladder. During all this 
time, although his heart was bleeding with anguish 
at the spectacle of his brave lads torn to pieces. 
Perry had made no outward sign of fear or grief. 
But something occurred that forced a cry from him. 
A ball striking in the bulwarks dislodged one of 
the hammocks, which in its flight struck Midshipman 
Perry in the chest, bowling him over like a nine- 
pin. The commander raised him from the deck, and 
then, to his joy, found that the lad was not even 
stunned. Looking again across the water, he saw 
that the Niagara, although nearer, was not coming 
on fast enough. An idea seized him. 

" Lower away that motto flag from the main- 



70 



THE HERO OF ERIE. 



mast!" he shouted, and hurriedly he ran to the taff- 
rail and looked over. A little yawl that had been 
towing astern was still floating there, with her oars in 
her, as yet uninjured. He ran forward, 
and found Yarnell leaning against the heel 
of the bowsprit. 

" Have you any men able to pull an 
oar? " he asked the lieutenant. 

Yarnell drew himself erect and looked 
back at what was left of the crew. Only 
nine men were unwounded. 

" What are you going to do, sir? " 
Yarnell asked. 

" I am going to transfer my flag to 
the Niagara," was Perry's quick reply. 
" I'll fetch him up." 

The little boat was brought along- 
side. The British, seeing the motto flag 
come down from the masthead, slack- 
ened in their fire. Four of the able- 
bodied men slid down into the little boat. 
Perry wrapped the motto flag around 
his arm, and then he turned to Yarnell 
again: 

" I leave you in command of the ship, 

Sword worn by Sir. 

Com. Perry "Very good, sir," the lieutenant re- 

at the battle of J i=> ^ 

Lake Erie. plied, saluting; " I shall do my best." 



THE BATTLE. 



71 



They say that it has been done before. His- 
torians tell us that in the battle of Solebay the 
Duke of York shifted his flag; and in the battle of 
the Texel, in 1673, the British Admiral Sprague 
shifted his flag twice, and was drowned in attempt- 
ing to shift it a third time. The great Dutchman 
Van Tromp, in this same action, transferred his flag 
also. But precedent does not detract in the least 
from valorous deeds. When the British saw the big 
flag come down from the masthead they set up a 
most tremendous cheering, thinking that at last their 
dogged adversary had given up; but when they saw 
the little rowboat speed out from the enveloping 
cloud of smoke, they opened fire again, directing 
their batteries and their musketry at her. 

Perry stood erect in the stern, the flag flutter- 
ing about him. Charges of grape spattered across 
the bow and stern. Round shot clipped the water 
but a few feet away, dashing the spray into the 
faces of the men bending at the oars. Two of the 
men in the sternsheets absolutely pulled their com- 
mander down from his exposed position, and all un- 
harmed they swept in under the counter of the Niag- 
ara, whose cheering crew had been watching them. 
As Perry gained the deck he turned back and looked 
at the Lawrence, and as he did so the charnel ship 
with her crew of five hauled down her flag that had 
been flying at the peak. She could fight no more. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

WITHOUT FEAR OR FAVOR. 

Elliot grasped Perry's hand. 

" Thank God, you're safe, sir! " he said. " But 
what a noble fight you made of it ! " 

'" There are but few of my brave men left," Perry 
returned, " but very few of them. Let us take all the 
advantage of this breeze we can. Order close action. 
Bend on this flag to the color halyards, and hoist it to 
the masthead." 

Proudly the emblem rose and tossed out to the air. 
No ship could surrender with those immortal words 
flying above her. 

Elliot spoke quickly again as the commander al- 
most groaned at seeing that the gunboats were out 
of striking distance. 

" Grant me permission, sir," he said, " and I will 
go back in a boat and try to hurry them along." 

No sooner was it asked than granted, and Elliot, 
as his superior had done, set out to bring the gun- 
boats into action. He used the same boat that had 

brought Perry from the Lawrence. 
72 



WITHOUT FEAR OR FAVOR. 73 

The Englishmen, who were cheering again after the 
flagship had lowered her ensign, soon gave over, for 
out of the smoke that was drifting down toward the 
Yankee fleet came the Niagara, with Perry in com- 
mand. It was no half-crippled, shattered hulk they 
had to face. Straight for their line the brig bore on. 
After her came the Somers, the Scorpion, and the 
smaller vessels, working their sweeps, and the men 
shouting as they redoubled their efforts to be up with 
their leader. It seemed as if every one was given 
giants' strength. The spectators on shore, who had 
'been watching the action in great suspense, began toss- 
ing their hats into the air. 

The presence of the commodore on board the Ni- 
agara stirred her crew to cheers. 

"We are all right now! " exclaimed a grizzled old 
veteran who had followed deep water since he was old 
enough to lift an oar — " we're all right now, and the 
old man brought the breeze with him! Soon we'll 
have the little barkers talking." He slapped the 
breech of the gun playfully. The captain of a ship 
is always called the " old man " by his crew, a term of 
half endearment. There was no disrespect meant by 
the old sailor, for at that very moment he would have 
laid down his life for the tall young figure on the 
quarter-deck. 

Perry's eyes were sparkling, but he gave his orders 
in the low, even tones that a sailor man knows and 



74 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

recognizes so well, as those of one who is a master 
of himself and a leader of others. 

" See! " suddenly exclaimed young Midshipman 
Perry, looking over his shoulder at his brother and 
pointing out across the water. Perry stooped and 
looked beneath the curving sweep of the foresail, and 
a smile crossed his face. 

" Look at that brave fellow Yarnell! " he said 
proudly to one of the ofBcers standing near him, 
"See there! he has drifted away from the fleet and 
hoisted his flag again." 

Sure enough, the Lawrence had her colors once 
more at the peak. Brave Yarnell! Weakened by his 
wounds and suffering intense pain, with a shipload 
of dead and dying men, no sooner had he perceived 
that the British did not intend to board him than with 
his own hands he raised the flag. How the words of 
Lawrence must have been imprinted upon the minds 
of the men of the Erie fleet! They had them on the 
motto flag, and they had them deeply written on their 
hearts. 

Perhaps the immortal words were the only things 
that Yarnell could think of. " Don't give up the ship! " 
he kept repeating, and he had determined that while 
he lived that flag should wave. 

" I was shipmate with Yarnell for three years," 
spoke one of the younger ofiEicers, " and once I 
quarrelled with him. He is a brave fellow. I 




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WITHOUT FEAR OR FAA'OR. 75 

hope that we both are spared, that I may ask his 
pardon." 

But there was little time for conversation. There 
was soon to be hot work indeed. 

The English fleet had begun to maneuver, and 
were heading this way and that in obedience to the 
signals of their flagship. They were endeavoring to 
get in line to receive the onslaught of the American 
squadron. Perry left the quarter-deck and hurried to 
the forecastle. They were almost within range, and 
yet not a gun had been fired. The smoke of the pre- 
vious action with the Lawrence had blown away, and 
lay like a thin mist over the water to leeward. The 
fickle wind again had shifted and caught some of the 
English vessels all aback. The Niagara took advan- 
tage of it and bore up a little. Her broadside guns 
covered the nearest English ships. The old sailor who 
had spoken to his comrades when the commodore 
had come on board almost groaned. He squinted 
along the barrel of the long twelve-pounder and low- 
ered the breech a little. Perry observed the motion. 

" Have you the range there, Judson? " he called 
out. 

"Aye, aye, sir, that I have!" the old tar replied, 
blushing that the commodore had remembered his 
name. " I think I can cripple her, sir! " 

The Queen Charlotte, whose crew were working 
like ants endeavoring to bring her head around, was 



76 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

gathering stern way. Just abaft her quarter was the 
Detroit, and she also seemed in difficuhies. A quick 
glance told Perry that the forward starboard gun was 
in position to do great damage, but there was not an 
accent of excitement in his voice as he turned quickly. 

"You may fire, Judson," he said; and scarcely had 
he spoken when the forecastle was shrouded in smoke, 
and at the roar of the gun every man looked to see 
the effect of the shot. 

Often and often has it been proved that defeat or 
victory hinged upon one movement or one single 
well-directed effort, and people term it " luck." Per- 
haps in some cases it may be, but, if so, good fortune 
had squinted along the barrel of Judson's gun. 

The ball carried away one of the stays, and crip- 
pled some of the running rigging in such a manner 
that the Queen Charlotte's fore-topsail went back 
against the mast, and before the Detroit could get 
out of the way the flagship had run afoul of her. They 
ranged side by side, the stem of one lying close to 
the stern of the other. The yards became twisted in 
the shrouds, and the running gear that was let go 
suddenly fouled so completely that soon they were 
locked together and hopelessly entangled. 

Now was the time for action. Perry hastened 
back to the quarter-deck. 

" Hold your fire! hold your fire! " he cried to the 
impatient gunners who were waiting for the word. 



WITHOUT FEAR OR FAVOR. 77 



" It was a good shot, Dan! " exclaimed one of the 
younger sailors to the old veteran. 

" God is with us this day," put in a tall New-Eng- 
lander, " He's fighting on our side." 

Perry spoke a few words to the quartermaster at 
the wheel. Nearer and nearer the Niagara ranged. 
The blows of the axes in the hands of the men who 
were trying to separate the English vessels could be 
distinctly heard, and the voices of the officers urging 
them on. It almost seemed as if the Niagara would 
soon be afoul of the others, so close was she ranging. 
The thump of the handspikes on the deck as the men 
brought their guns to bear, and the flapping of the 
great maintopsails that had come back against the 
mast, added to the sounds that came from the Eng- 
lish vessels. They were now but two points forward 
of the beam, and in another instant Perry had given 
the w^ord. 

No broadside that had been poured into the poor 
defenseless Lawrence had been as destructive as that 
that leaped from the Niagara's side. The crushing 
force of the heavy short-range guns was seen. Splin- 
ters flew and great gashes were ripped in the bow and 
stern of the Detroit and the Queen. Whole charges 
and grapeshot swept the crowded decks. It was one 
of those dreadful transformation scenes that have hap- 
pened and always will happen in battle. The stricken 
ships shivered beneath the blows. The busy axes 



78 



THE HERO OF ERIE. 



ceased. The shrieks and groans rose. A young officer 
who had been aloft fell heavily from the foretop to 
the deck. From a crowd of men on the forecastle 






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Diagram of the battle, No. 2. 

only one or two managed to scramble to their feet, 
badly wounded. A grim look was on the faces of the 
Yankee gunners. 

"That for the Lawrence!" exclaimed old Jud- 
son. 

Perry had remained unmoved. He spoke a few 
quiet words to one of the lieutenants. The men 
sprang to the braces and heaved the yards around. 

On the Niagara swept, heading for the Lady Pro- 
vost, that lay but a short distance off to port. " Here 
come the little ones! " exclaimed one of the officers, 



WITHOUT FEAR OR FAVOR. 79 

pointing back over the taffrail. " Here's Turner in the 
Caledonia! " 

The Yankee cheers filled the air as the smaller 
craft came into action. They followed close upon the 
heels of the Niagara, and as each one passed the Eng- 
lish ships she let go her little broadside. Well were 
those guns served and aimed! Just as the Porcupine 
passed by there came a crash, and the mainmast of 
the Detroit fell, bringing dowai everything in its wake, 
and a few seconds afterw'ard the mizzenmast of the 
Queen Charlotte fell also. 

The port broadside of the Niagara now spoke in 
earnest, and the Lady Provost reeled from the shot 
that swept her from stern to bow. The little British 
gunboat Hunter w^as destined to be the next vic- 
tim, but just as the gunners were training their pieces 
upon her a British officer in full uniform mounted the 
bulwarks. He waved a white flag at the end of a 
pikestafif, and at the same time down fluttered the 
English ensign. 

" Cease firing! " came the order from the quarter- 
deck. But a few shots from any of the English vessels 
had reached the Niagara, although she had not es- 
caped unscathed. A round shot from one of the bow 
guns of the English flagship had killed two men, and 
twenty-five of her crew had been wounded by splinters 
and musket balls. 

As the haze of smoke cleared away, it was seen 



8o THE HERO OF ERIE. 

that the two remaining Englishmen were doing their 
best to escape. They had crowded on all sail and 
were making off as fast as they could. 

" There go the Chippewa and Little Belt ! " 
Perry exclaimed; "but see, the Scorpion and the 
Trippe are hot after them! " 

It was an exciting race to watch. There was 
plenty to do in clearing away the wreckage and look- 
ing after the dead and wounded, but every now and 
then the men would steal a glance at the fleeing 
vessels and their pursuers. Every minute the latter 
were gaining, and when it was perceived that they 
would soon head them the sailors on the Niagara 
and the rest of the fleet began to cheer again. 
" There the Scorpion speaks! " exclaimed an old sailor. 
" And the Trippe isn't far behind her! " put in an- 
other. 

The captains of the Little Belt and the Chippewa 
saw the game was up, and, after the interchange of a 
few shots, down came their flags. The victory was 
complete. The power of the English upon the lakes 
had vanished. The borderland was safe! 

Perry gazed out over the water as the smoke 
cleared away. He recognized all the importance of 
what had been accomplished. He realized that with 
one bound he had achieved fame, and yet well he 
knew at what cost it was and w^hat a price his brave 
men had paid. Gazing off to the southward, he saw 







(/) <, 



03 S 

6 ^ 



WITHOUT FEAR OR FAVOR. 



the wreck of the Lawrence, and noticed again with 
a flush of pride that her flag was flying. 

The stilhiess seemed uncanny after the furious 
clamor of the guns. The occasional groan of a 
wounded man, the sound of axes, and the voices of 
officers shouting orders alone broke the stillness, A 
thought crossed Perry's mind : By every right, the 
principal honor of the victory belonged to the tattered 
hulk that had so long borne the brunt of the battle 
alone! He turned to an officer who was standing 
close by him. 

" Call away a boat," he said quietly, " and put me 
on board the Lawrence. I will receive the surrender 
there." 

A feeble cheer greeted him as he reached the flag- 
ship's side. Wounded men crawled to the ports and 
weakly raised themselves at the rail. Tears filled the 
young commander's eyes as he stepped upon the deck. 
There had been no time to clear away the debris and 
wreckage, nor even to take care and move all the 
wounded below. The heaps of slain, some frightfully 
mangled, crowded the deck. With the assistance of 
the crew of the boat that had rowed the commodore 
ofif, a shred of sail was made upon the foremast, but 
it was found impossible to gain steerage way, and the 
attempt was abandoned. 

Lieutenant Yarnell and Surgeon Parsons had met 
Perry as he clambered over the side. " I have 



82 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

come back to the old ship," said the young com- 
mander. 

"Thank God, you have been saved to us!" ex- 
claimed Yarnell. 

Perry turned to him. " And I thank God, too," 
he said, " to find that you are living to share the vic- 
tory. When I saw that you had hoisted your flag 
again I knew that we would be successful." 

At this moment a boat from the Caledonia came 
alongside, and an officer reported. As he looked 
about him he turned pale. The rest of the fleet had 
not known how dreadful had been the struggle that 
the Lawrence had gone through. " Are you going to 
receive the surrender here, sir? " he asked, saluting. 

" I am," was Perry's reply. " Will you pass the 
word to the captured vessels? " 

The officer hastened to his boat. It was with a 
sigh of relief that he put off from the side. The ship 
was full of the groans that came from the crowded 
cockpit. Usher Parsons returned below to his work. 
Never could that sight leave the minds of any one 
who witnessed it. Overhead the sky was blue and 
clear, all the smoke had disappeared, and over the 
dimpled waters of the lake the vessels floated, hud- 
dled near to one another. It was like the lull and 
stillness that follow a tremendous storm. Perry 
walked to the rail. The greatest day of his life had 
come and passed. The thoughts that filled his mind 



WITHOUT FEAR OR FAVOR. 83 

crowded one upon another in quick succession, but 
one was uppermost. It was not a vainglorious ex- 
ultation, but a thankfulness for deliverance from dan- 
ger and a wide, great love for the men who had shared 
it with him and who had suffered and died for their 
country's sake. 

But now the whole fleet was drifting down nearer 
and nearer, and soon boats put off from the English 
vessels, and in the stern sheets sat officers bearing 
their side arms in their hands. Never could they for- 
get the sight that greeted them as they came to the 
Lawrence's deck. She was filled with the groans of 
the wounded below, above which sounded the mourn- 
ful wailing of a little dog confined somewhere in the 
hold. A group of silent men watched the officers come 
on board. Near the wheel stood Perry, His pale 
face was set, but with no look of triumph or elation. 
His arms were folded, and as each officer approached 
and offered his sword in token of submission, the hero 
of Erie bowed slightly. 

" I request that you will keep your sword, sir," 
he said to each. " It has been bravely used and worn." 

The ceremony was short, for there was much to 
be done. The English officers were anxious to get 
away; even a prison would be better than being on 
board that charnel ship. Some were so overcome that 
they shut their eyes, and one commander, a man of 
experience and used to war's dreadful necessities, stag- 



84 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

gered weakly to the side. He supported himself 
against the bulwarks. It is safe to state that never 
before nor since had such terrible slaughter taken place 
on board a ship of any navy. But as the news of the 
victory was spreading below in the crowded cockpit, 
all the wounded had displayed signs of gratification; 
and when the surgeon had brought the word that all 
the enemy had struck, the brave fellows tried to raise 
their voices in response. Years afterward, when Usher 
Parsons was an old man, he spoke as follows: "The 
idea that Perry was safe seemed to reconcile every man 
to his own suffering, but I can never forget the scene. 
The deck was slippery with blood, and strewed with 
the bodies of more than twenty officers and men, 
some of whom had sat at table with us at our last 
meal, and the ship resounded with the groans of the 
wounded. Those of us who were spared and able to 
walk met him at the gangway to welcome him on 
board, but the salutation was a silent one — no one 
could utter but a word. And now the British officers 
arrived, one from each vessel, to tender their submis- 
sion and with it their swords. I remember as they ap- 
proached they picked their way among the wreck and 
carnage, extending the hilts of their side arms toward 
Perry, tendering them for his acceptance. With a 
dignified and solemn air, and in a low tone of voice, 
he requested them to retain their side arms, inquired in 
deep concern for Commodore Barclay and the wounded 



WITHOUT FEAR OR FAVOR. 85 

officers, tendering them every comfort his ship afforded, 
and expressing his regret that he had not a spare medical 
officer to send them; that he had only one on duty for 
the fleet, and that one had his hands full." 

As soon as the last British officer left the Law- 
rence, Perry called young Midshipman Forrest to him. 
It was important that the news of this victory should 
reach the ears of the general commanding the Ameri- 
can troops on shore as soon as possible. To be the 
bearer of such a dispatch was a coveted honor, and 
Perry had not chosen amiss in thus selecting and re- 
warding a lad who had displayed such courage and 
coolness in action. 

Removing his heavy hat and placing it on his knee. 
Perry searched through his pockets for some paper 
on which to write the message. He found nothing 
but an old letter. Tearing ofif the back, he hastily 
scribbled the following note — one that has become his- 
toric, and that will always live as a model of moder- 
ate and humble expression: 

U. S. BRIG Niagara, off the Western Sister, 
HEAD OF Lake Erie, 

September 10, 181 j, at 4 p. M. 

" Dear General: We have met the enemy and 
they are ours. Two ships, two brigs, one schooner, 
and one sloop. 

" Yours, with great respect and esteem, 

"O. H. Perry." 



86 THE HtRO OF ERIE. 

Young Forrest took this note and started in a 
small boat for the shore. It was dead calm now on 
the lake, and the moon rose early. It looked down 
upon a strange scene. Perry had wisely determined, 
before sailing back to harbor, to clear away as much 
of the wreckage and signs of the carnage as possible. 
The dead were made ready for burial in the waters 
of the lake, and, after a short service, English and 
American were sent off together, each wrapped in a 
sailor's shroud of a hammock with a round shot at his 
heels. The dead officers were placed in roughly con- 
structed coffins to be brought ashore for more cere- 
monious burial. 

But let us look at the reports of the losses sus- 
tained by both sides during this action: The Lawrence 
flagship had twenty-two killed and sixty-one wounded; 
the Niagara, two killed and twenty-five wounded; 
the Scorpion, two killed; the Ariel, one killed and 
three wounded; the Caledonia, three wounded; the 
Somers, two wounded; the Trippe, two wounded — in 
all, twenty-seven were killed outright and ninety-six 
were wounded, which foots up to a total of one hun- 
dred and twenty-three. When we subtract from this 
the loss sustained on board the Lawrence, we per- 
ceive how slight were the injuries of the others, and 
what a part she bore in the action. 

The British loss was even greater in the aggre- 
gate than the American, being forty-one killed and 



■"^''Tr,/ 




WITHOUT FEAR OR FAVOR. 87 

ninety-four wounded, a total of one hundred and 
thirty-five. All the unwounded prisoners were placed 
on board the Porcupine and were landed at Cannon 
River. 

Perry endeared himself to the foe by the manner 
in which he personally superintended arranging for 
the care of the wounded and the comfort of the pris- 
oners. Brave Commodore Barclay had kept on deck 
throughout the engagement, but he had suffered se- 
verely. His right arm had been lost years before 
while fighting under Nelson, and the sleeve was pinned 
across his chest. In the early part of the action he 
had been wounded in the thigh, and shortly afterward 
by a musket ball in the left shoulder, that rendered 
him absolutely incapable of taking care of himself. 
He could scarcely stand, and now both arms were use- 
less. But the brave man's spirit kept him going. His 
indomitable will did not fail him. Perry had given up 
his own cabin to the wounded leader, and from the 
very first displayed a keen desire to do anything in 
his power to alleviate his sufiferings. On the 12th, 
after the fieet had landed the wounded, there was 
held a ceremony that is a tradition in Put-in-Bay, and 
there is yet living in Detroit a man who rememl)ers 
having witnessed it as a boy. Thus often are we linked 
back by one life to affairs and doings that appear an- 
cient history almost, or at least are claimed by the 
misty long ago. The burial of the officers must have 



88 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

been a scene long to be remembered. Preceded by 
a band of music playing a funeral march came the 
funeral cortege, bearing the six cofifins containing the 
bodies of three American and three British officers : 
Midshipman Henry Laub, Midshipman John Clark, 
and the gallant Lieutenant Brooks, whose death we 
have recorded; Captain Finnis and Lieutenant Stokes 
of the Queen Charlotte, and Lieutenant Garland of the 
Detroit. Before the landing had been made there had 
been a procession of boats, rowing minute strokes, 
and, as an eyewitness describes it, " the slow and regu- 
lar motion of the oars, striking in exact time with the 
notes of the solemn dirge, the mournful waving of 
flags, and the sound of minute guns from the ships 
presented a striking contrast to the scene of two days 
before, when both the living and the dead, now form- 
ing in this solemn and fraternal train, were engaged in 
fierce and bloody strife." 

As they marched to the place of burial the crews 
of both fleets followed the mourning officers, and when 
they ranged about the graves there was to be seen a 
peculiar sight. Master-Commandant Perry, the hero 
of Erie, stood there, supporting with his arm the 
wounded and shattered figure of Commodore Barclay, 
who leaned heavily against him. The brave officer 
had insisted upon attending the ceremony, and after 
it was all over he was taken to Perry's quarters, where 
the latter waited upon him personally, and sat by his 



WITHOUT FEAR OR FAVOR. 



89 



bedside half the night. War is a dreadful thing, but 
it does not necessarily mean a hatred of an honest 
enemy. Often admiration for the generosity or brav- 
ery of an adversary calls up feelings akin to love and 
afifection. 



CHAPTER IX. 

A SAILOR ON HORSEBACK. 

After a battle has been fought there come to 
light many incidents and occurrences that are not 
noticed during the heat of action, and sometimes they 
escape the attention of even the careful historian. 
Little details that are of great interest can not be 
spoken of in describing great effects, but at the same 
time they should not be allowed to pass by unno- 
ticed, although their consequences are of not much 
moment. 

When the Niagara had delivered her broadside at 
the Lady Provost, it had swept the decks and so dis- 
heartened the crew that all had run below — all but 
one man, dressed in the uniform of a lieutenant, and, 
strange to say, he stood there calmly in the compan- 
ion way, with his chin resting on his hand, gazing 
fixedly at the Niagara as she passed. What it meant 
no one knew at the time, but afterward it was ascer- 
tained that he was Lieutenant Buchan, and that a 
wound in the head from a musket ball had deranged 

his mind. Thus he had stood there utterly uncon- 
90 



A SAILOR ON HORSEBACK. 91 

scions that he was in danger and obHvious to his sur- 
roundings. 

The English had enHsted into their service for 
this battle some Indian warriors belonging to the 
tribes that they had hired to make a border warfare 
against the Americans, but broadside to broadside 
was not their style of fighting. After the engage- 
ment had begun, they had skulked like the redskins 
that they were, and had hidden in the depths of the 
vessel's hold. 

Years afterward there was started a newspaper 
controversy that developed great bitterness between 
the personal friends of Master-Commandant ElHot 
and those of Perry. 

But the conduct of the hero of Erie was digni- 
fied, and he certainly did not begin the affair, as 
he laid no charge against his brother officer and cer- 
tainly did him full justice in his detailed report of 
the engagement to the Secretary of the Navy. In 
fact, his report is of such great interest and is so just 
and fair that it may be best to give it space here. 

Perry writes as follows in regard to the conduct 
of his officers: " Lieutenant Yarnell, although several 
times wounded, refused to quit the deck. Midship- 
man Forrest and Sailing-Master Taylor were of 
great assistance to me. I have great pain in report- 
ing the death of Lieutenant John Brooks, of the ma- 
rines, Midshipman Henry Laub, of the Lawrence, 



92 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

and John Clark, of the Scorpion; they were valuable 
and promising officers. Samuel Hambleton, purser, 
who volunteered his services on deck, was severely 
wounded late in the action. Midshipman Thomas 
Claxton and Augustus Swartwout, of the Lawrence, 
were severely wounded. Lieutenants Smith and John 
J. Edwards and Midshipman Nelson Webster, of the 
Niagara, behaved in a very handsome manner. Cap- 
tain Brevoort, of the army, who acted as a volunteer 
marine in the Niagara, is an excellent and brave of- 
ficer, and did great execution with his musketry. 
Lieutenant Turner, of the Caledonia, brought that 
vessel into action in a most able manner, and is an 
officer who in all situations may be relied on. The 
Ariel, Lieutenant Packett, and the Scorpion, Sailing- 
Master Champlin, were enabled to get into action 
early, and were of great service. Master-Commandant 
Elliot spoke in the highest terms of Humphry Ma- 
grath, purser, who had been dispatched in a boat on 
service previously to getting on board the Niagara, 
and, being a seaman, had rendered essential service 
since the action by taking charge of one of the prizes. 
Of Master-Commandant Elliot, already so well known 
to the Government, it would be almost superfluous 
to speak. In this action he evinced his characteristic 
bravery and judgment." 

Besides the honor which was gained by all who 
had any connection with the battle of the lakes, sub- 



A SAILOR ON HORSEBACK. 93 



stantial rewards were also reaped. Gold medals were 
awarded to Perry and Elliot, silver medals to each 
of the commissioned officers, and silver medals also 
to the nearest male relatives of Lieutenant Brooks, 
and to the nearest relatives of Midshipman Henry 
Laub, Thomas Claxton, and John Clark were given 
swords. To all the officers, seamen, and marines was 
awarded an extra three months' pay, in addition to 
which Congress voted $225,000 prize money to be 
divided among the victorious crews. 

Commodore Chauncey, who, although not actual- 
ly in action, was the chief in command on the lakes, 
received $12,750; Perry and Elliot $7,150 each, but 
Congress supplemented this by an additional $5,000 
to Perry. Each commander of a gunboat, sailing 
master, lieutenant, and lieutenant of marines received 
$2,295; midshipmen, $811; petty officers, $447; ma- 
rines and sailors, $209 apiece. 

But now let us return to the doings of Com- 
modore Perry — the " commodore " by courtesy, 
for he still bore only the rank of master comman- 
dant. 

Strange to say, his next duty was on land, where 
he fought as a volunteer and aid-de-camp to General 

Harrison. 

Although the British had lost all their vessels in 
the lakes, they were still in great force on the Cana- 
dian shore, and until they had been dislodged or their 



94 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

organization partially broken the American power 
could not be firmly established. 

The English prisoners were landed at Sandusky 
and hurried on to Chillicothe, Ohio, and, as soon as 
the ships could be placed in readiness, the American 
troops were embarked for the contemplated attack 
upon Maiden. 

On the 22d of September Commodore Perry landed 
twelve hundred infantry on a small island about twelve 
miles from the English stronghold, and the next day 
they were embarked and landed upon the Canadian 
shore, near the town of Amherstburg, which had 
been evacuated, and was immediately taken posses- 
sion of. It was at once ascertained that the English 
General Proctor had decided upon retreat. He had 
burned the fort at Maiden, the barracks, the navy 
yard, and the public storehouses, and had started up 
country with all his forces. 

General Harrison pressed on in pursuit. Proctor 
was heading for the river Thames, which empties into 
Lake St. Clair, about twenty-five miles above Detroit. 

On the 2d of October Perry volunteered to be- 
come an aid on General Harrison's staff, and started 
with the army from the town of Sandwich close upon 
Proctor's heels. The American army was composed 
of but one hundred and forty regulars, and amounted 
in the aggregate to not more than thirty-five hundred 
men. They included a mounted regiment, under 



A SAILOR ON HORSEBACK. 95 

command of the brave Colonel Johnson, who had made 
a name for himself in the wars with the Indians, and 
the Kentucky troops, in command of Governor Shelby, 
a veteran of the war of the Revolution, who, though 
well over sixty, had all the strength, dash, and cour- 
age of his early days. 

As they approached the river Thames, the path 
of the English forces could be distinctly noticed. 
They had attempted to destroy everything which 
might help to support the pursuing forces, and houses 
and granaries and barns were left in smoking ruins. 
Even the scanty crops of grain that had been gath- 
ered in the fields had been destroyed. 

On the morning of the 3d the banks of the Thames 
were reached, and the army crossed unmolested over 
a rickety old bridge which Proctor had set fire to, 
but which had not been wholly destroyed. But there 
were before General Harrison the three branches of 
the river, all deep and rapid streams, and it was not 
expected that they would pass them without meeting 
some of the enemy. 

Speed in pursuit makes up for numbers, and, with- 
out waiting to camp or for the baggage to arrive 
(this had been brought partly around by boat), Har- 
rison pushed ahead with the mounted detachments, 
galloping as fast as the horses could go over the rough 
and uneven country. 

Perry, who had changed his calling from that of 



96 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

the seaman to that of a cavalryman, had been for- 
tunate enough to secure a good horse that had been 
left behind at Amherstburg, possibly by one of the 
English ofificers. 

It was hard to tell when they would meet the rear 
guard of the enemy. At any point in the valleys or 
hills they might be ambushed. 

Harrison did not expect to take the bridges with- 
out resistance. At one o'clock in the afternoon, 
Perry, who was riding in advance with one of the 
lieutenants, came over the brow of a steep hill, and 
there below him saw a small force of infantry de- 
ployed across the road at the entrance to the first 
bridge. Some men were working with axes and ex- 
temporized crowbars, trying to tear up the planks 
and undermine the bridge seats. Without waiting 
to ascertain whether Proctor's whole army was drawn 
up on the other side of the tall bushes and trees, Har- 
rison called for a charge, and, with him and Perry at 
the head, the mounted regiment swept down. The 
Englishmen were taken by surprise. Scarcely a shot 
was fired, and all those who did not have time to run 
across were captured. Among them were a lieuten- 
ant of dragoons, eleven privates of his regiment, and 
some infantry. 

Onward they pressed across the dividing land that 
rose gradually between the valleys of the branches 
of the stream. The same condition of affairs was 



A SAILOR ON HORSEBACK. 97 



found to exist at the next bridge, although the work 
of destruction had progressed somewhat more. The 
farther end of it was in flames, and but few of the 
logs that served for planking remained, but without . 
hesitancy the mounted force swept down. One or 
two of the troopers sustained falls by reason of their 
horses' legs going through the woodwork, but with 
a cheer they rushed bravely across, and it was but 
the work of a few minutes to extinguish the flames. 

Leaving a small guard at the entrance, Harrison 
pressed on; but, finding that he could not reach the 
North Fork until nightfall, he returned and placed 
Perry in charge of repairing the bridge, after which 
he hastened back to facilitate the forward movement 
of the rest of the army. Late that night the baggage 
arrived, coming up the river by boat, and there camp 
was built and a strong guard was established. 

As we have mentioned before, the British on the 
northwestern frontier had engaged the services of 
the Canadian Indian troops, and also of some of the 
nations who for a long time had been at war with the 
New York, the Ohio, and the Kentucky frontiers- 
men. These Indians were not bad fighters, and on 
this occasion they had for their leader the celebrated 
chief Tecumseh, who, although he was feared by his 
enemies, the American whites, bore a reputation for 
honesty and bravery second to none of the great 
chieftains who had given so much trouble. 



98 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

When the last bridge was found, instead of it being 
protected by a Hne of EngHsh troops, the only force 
that showed itself was a band of several hundred In- 
dians, who stood without intrenchments on the far- 
ther side. They were evidently prepared to dispute 
the passage of the American forces, and to obstruct 
the repairing of the bridge. They were well armed, 
and it seemed that there would be a large sacrifice of 
life in case a charge was ordered. Perry was sent back 
to the rear with instructions to bring up two six- 
pounders. It was no easy work to get them through 
the woods and to keep them from sinking hub-deep 
in the soft, rain-soaked roads, but he managed to 
bring them to the front, and, after a few well-directed 
shots, the Indians retired. In two hours the bridge 
was repaired, and the troops marched across. 

There was a little house on the hill that had been 
occupied by a Canadian settler. At first nothing 
amiss was noticed, but suddenly one of the younger 
officers pointed out that smoke was coming from the 
open windows, and, before a movement could be 
made, it was seen that the upper story was in flames. 
It was so near the river that water could be pro- 
cured without great difficulty, and the fire was ex- 
tinguished. The British had left in this house a quan- 
tity of gunpowder and muskets, all of which were wel- 
come trophies of war. 

Away up the river above the trees a thin column 



A SAILOR ON HORSEBACK. 



99 



of smoke was seen ascending the air, and when some 
of the Americans had skirted the river bank, it was 
found that one of the British vessels, probably from 
Maiden, had been towed and worked up there and 
at the last moment had been fired. All this proved 
that the enemy were not far away, and that soon they 
would be forced to turn and fight. 

About four miles above where the first vessel was 
seen, two more were afterward found in flames. At 
the top of a large hill a big building was discovered 
toward evening burning fiercely. Although every 
effort was made to get at the contents and subdue 
the fire, it had progressed so far that the only prop- 
erty saved were two mounted twenty-four-pounders 
and a few shot and shell. 

At this place, which was known as the Distillery, 
the troops camped that night, and before daybreak 
next morning they were again in motion, and by 
three o'clock one of the scouts announced to General 
Harrison that the enemy had halted and were pre- 
paring to meet them. It was without doubt Proc- 
tor's intention to reach this very point, and there to 
make his stand. He had not chosen it haphazard, 
nor had he been forced to take it. With miHtary 
judgment and forethought he recognized the advan- 
tages of the position. A large and almost impassable 
swamp followed the bend of the river for several 
miles. The hilltop was covered with a great forest 



THE HERO OF ERIE. 



of beech trees, almost clear of underbrush, and the 
other side swept down into a tangle of tamarack and 
stunted pine. 

The road by which the Americans had been ap- 
proaching ran through the forest near to the bank 
of the stream, or, better, the juncture of the swamp. 
All the artillery had been placed to guard the open 
approach, the Indian auxiliaries had been massed in 
the swamp, and a line of well-intrenched infantrymen 
filled the hillsides among the pines. 

In Harrison's report he gives great credit to Perry 
for suggestions, and proves that the hero of Erie, be- 
sides possessing nautical skill, could boast of no little 
military abihty. The accounts of the little battle 
that followed are not known to many readers of 
American history, but yet it deserves mention, not 
only because of its real importance, but because of 
the doings of the backwoodsmen who formed the ma- 
jority of the forces. 

As they formed in order of battle, the brigade 
under command of General Trotter took the front 
line, with his right upon the road and his left upon 
the swamp. Next came General Desha's division, 
formed in two lines to the left. Less than two hun- 
dred yards in the rear of Trotter's brigade came that 
of General King, while one brigade was held back as 
a reserve force in the rear. Each brigade numbered 
nearly five hundred men. It was the first intention 



A SAILOR ON HORSEBACK. 



to try to turn the flank that the Indians held, and to 
push them in from the right; but, owing to the swampi- 
ness of the ground and the denseness of the foliage, 
the horses could not be used, and it was seen that 
the men as they came across the open space would 
find themselves exposed to a withering fire. 

It seemed that Proctor had guarded at every point, 
but he did not count upon certain qualities which have 
shown themselves in the character of the American 
soldier when hard pressed or thwarted. It can best 
be described by the word " initiative "■ — an unhesi- 
tating and simultaneous action arising from the indi- 
vidual efforts of the men to relieve the situation. It 
was always supposed that artillery sheltered by woods 
was safe from a cavalry charge. In many a battle 
have batteries of artillery been taken by a fierce on- 
slaught of mounted men charging in the open, but 
when protected by trees it had never happened. Of 
course, the fierce weight of the attack would be 
broken by dodging in and out among the trunks, and 
the Englishmen's tactics prescribed no method of 
getting around them. 

However, the Kentucky riflemen (some of whom 
were mounted) and all of the backwoods companies 
that were on horseback were gathered on both sides 
of the road that ran to the forest. At a given order 
they were to join forces and go headlong to the artil- 
lery that was among the beeches at the top of the 



THE HERO OF ERIE. 



hill. As the forward movement took place, firing 
began on both left and right, and then, as the head 
of the column appeared in the road, the artillery 
opened up. At first the horsemen were thrown into 
confusion, but suddenly a strong, clear voice rang 
out: 

" Now, lads, up and at them before they can get 
in another broadside!" 

Perry had left Harrison's side, and his quick eye 
had seen the opportunity. The English, shrouded in 
their own smoke, and knowing that it would take 
some time for the Americans to cross the ground on 
foot, and doubting that they would dare to do so, did 
not see the band of horsemen gallop into the open. 
They did not hear the order to charge, and the first 
thing they knew mounted men were all around them 
in the woods. . In fact, the guns were captured and 
the English line broken in less than two minutes' 
actual time, for the mounted infantry rode through 
them, wheeled and turned, and fired again, and in 
those two minutes the battle was won. Strange to 
say, not a single American horseman was killed, and 
but three were wounded! 

The Indians, however, were making a good fight 
of it upon the American left, and here the American 
advance was checked; but the same riflemen who had 
captured the batteries, swinging ofif toward the swamp, 
got in on the higher ground behind it, and now Tecum- 



A SAILOR ON HORSEBACK. 103 

sell's men found themselves between two fires. It 
was more than flesh and blood could stand, and they 
broke and retreated in all directions. The day was 
won. 

Six hundred prisoners of the British regulars sur- 
rendered, twelve were killed, and twenty-two wounded. 
The Indians lost thirty-three dead, whose bodies were 
found in the swamp and the surrounding hillsides. 
Six brass field pieces were taken, and, strange to say, 
three were discovered to be trophies of the Revolution- 
ary War, and they were the same ones that had been 
surrendered to the British by General Hull at De- 
troit. Originally they had been taken from the Brit- 
ish at Saratoga and Yorktown some thirty years be- 
fore! 

Almost all of the small arms that were captured 
had also previously belonged to the Americans, and 
had been taken at Detroit, Frenchtown, or one of 
the skirmishes along the Miami. 

As a group of ofificers rode over the field of bat- 
tle, a sergeant approached and, saluting, spoke a few 
words to General Harrison. 

"Are you sure that it is he, my man?" said the 
general in reply to the sergeant's words. 

" I know him well by sight, sir," was the answer. 
" He lies just beyond the farther hill." 

Riding over in that direction, they found a number 
of men surrounding a figure on the ground. It was 



I04 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

that of the brave Indian Tecumseh. At the time of 
his death he bore a commission as brigadier general 
in the EngHsh army, and his name was one to con- 
jure with among the Indian tribes. Although he hated 
the United States, his method of conducting war had 
always been that of a high-minded leader. He had 
been more anxious than the English for the action, 
and previous to it he had berated Proctor for show- 
ing a disposition to retreat. 

In making his report, Harrison did not forget to 
mention the value of the services of his voluntary aid. 
He writes of Perry as follows: 

" Commodore Perry assisted me in forming the 
troops for action, and his appearance cheered and 
animated every breast." 



CHAPTER X. 

AFTER THE VICTORY. 

It happened that news of the victory on the lakes 
came to the people at large when they were much de- 
pressed and exceedingly down-hearted over the way 
things had been going with the army on the frontier. 
It needed just such news to create a new spirit and re- 
vive the public zeal. A contemporary wrote, in the 
strange old style to which writers of the early part of 
the century w^ere prone: 

*' No wonder this victory communicates a ray of joy 
to every American bosom. It occasioned through the 
country every visible testimonial of public rejoicing. In 
all of our principal cities illuminations took place, ac- 
companied with other demonstrations of joy, admira- 
tion, and gratitude. All felt the animating influence 
of the victory so splendid in its character and so im- 
portant in its consequences. All participated in the 
general joy. The merchant laid aside his ledger, the 
mechanic the implements of his trade, the man of busi- 
ness suspended his exertions, the laborer his toil, and 

the speculator forgot his golden dreams for a moment, 
8 105 



io6 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

all uniting in one common demonstration of joy and 
gratitude." 

Which all goes to prove that Perry, like Admiral 
Dewey in our day, found himself a much-admired in- 
dividual. 

Congress and the people at large showed their ap- 
probation in every possible way. Besides the money 
which had been voted him, he was presented with nu- 
merous tokens and honorable mementos. His journey 
through the country wherever he went was an ovation. 
It is a wonder that he ever survived the number of din- 
ners and receptions where the lists of toasts were as 
long as your arm. 

But what had pleased Perry most was undoubtedly 
his promotion to the rank of captain, to date from the 
day of his victory, 

A strange little side light upon the character of the 
young commander is shown by the fact that after his 
long journey from the lakes to Newport, R. I., he still 
had kept by him the four brave men who had rowed his 
boat out from the shattered Lawrence to the Niagara, 
Wherever he went they accompanied him, a self-consti- 
tuted guard of honor. 

But an idle life was not to the young captain's liking, 
and certainly that at Newport was not conducive to 
happiness in Perry's eyes. What he needed and craved 
was activity and a chance for the exercise of his com- 
manding powers, and so early in January, 1814, he 



AFTER THE VICTORY. 107 



started overland for Washington. We, who travel so 
easily and luxuriously in our express trains, have no 
idea of the tediousness and length of such a journey 
during the older times. Think of sometimes being 
three or four days from Boston to New York, and just 
as long from that city to Washington! 

On the nth he arrived in New York, and a splendid 
entertainment was given him in Tammany Hall (which 
was very different from the Tammany Hall nowadays). 
Strange to say, just at this time politics had begun to 
creep into interstate transactions. Many people in 
New England, and especially those who had interests 
at Boston, had bitterly opposed the declaration of hos- 
tilities against Great Britain, and it was not until a num- 
ber of our victories at sea had begun to restore confi- 
dence that these birds of ill-omen ceased their croaking. 
In New York, which was an important center of parti- 
sanship, there were many factions, and there were many 
political parties on the verge of formation that might 
cause destruction to the national policy. When Perry 
rose to respond to the speech of welcome, he looked 
down the large hall, and without making any references 
to the condition of afifairs or to the reason of his being 
there, in a few simple words he pledged " the union of 
the States." He spoke of the necessity of their stand- 
ing together. It often requires but a few words at the 
right time to weld what might become separate and an- 
tagonistic sections strongly together. It was like the 



io8 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

well-directed and skillful blows of the hammer that 
forge the two ends of a band of steel. 

A tumultuous applause greeted his little speech, and 
afterward it was said that his words had done more 
good than all the outpourings of the press. 

There is but the account of one more entertainment 
that was given in his honor, and we will resume the more 
interesting part of his life. 

Baltimore is a town always renowned for its hospi- 
tality. They did not do things by halves in those days, 
and on the ist of February an entertainment was given 
to Perry that was so unusual that it attracted great at- 
tention throughout the country, and accounts of it were 
copied from one paper to another. What it was really 
like, in view of the manner in which such a thing could 
be done nowadays, with electric lights, complicated 
mechanisms, and all that, we can not judge, so per- 
haps it is well to quote directly from a contemporary 
newspaper, Niles's Register, that was published in Bal- 
timore: 

" On Tuesday, Commodore Perry was entertained at 
Barney's Fountain Inn in a manner that we beg to be 
indulged in communicating and recording, for reasons 
that may be urged hereafter." (The reasons that the 
editor urges are that the whole afifair is a nation's busi- 
ness.) Then he goes on, after mentioning some of the 
people who were present: 

" At the head of a large room was a large transparent 



AFTER THE VICTORY. 109 

painting, reaching almost across the hall, representing 
the battle of Erie. The accomplished artist had hap- 
pily seized that moment, when Commodore Perry, 
' at forty-five minutes past two, having thrown out 
the signal for close action,' bore up in the Niagara 
and passed ahead of their two ships and a brig, giv- 
ing a raking fire to them from the starboard guns, 
and to a large schooner and sloop from the larboard 
side at half-pistol-shot distance. The smaller vessels 
having at this time got within grape and canister dis- 
tance, under the direction of Captain Elliot, and keep- 
ing up a well-directed fire, the two ships, a brig, and a 
schooner surrendered, a schooner and a sloop making 
a vain attempt to escape. 

" The painting was finely executed, and its effect 
was charming. At the head of the tables was the rep- 
resentation of a stern of a ship, labeled * Niagara,' on 
which, as on the quarter-deck, were placed the presi- 
dent of the day, Edward Johnson, Esq., with the hero, 
Commodores Lewis and Barney, and Captains Spence 
and Ridgely, of the U. S. Navy, and other invited 
guests. In front of these rose, as in a great column, 
a bundle of eighteen arrows, braced together by massy 
bands, on which were inscribed the names of Hull, 
Jones, Decatur, Bainbridge, Lawrence, Ludlow, Bur- 
rows, Allen, and Perry, in large letters of gold. From 
the center of the arrows rose a topgallant mast and 
yard, bearing a flag on which was inscribed the mem- 



THE HERO OF ERIE. 



orable dispatch, ' We have met the enemy and they 
are ours.' The pedestal was ornamented with naval 
emblems and wreaths. Over the whole was suspended 
the American eagle, bearing in his beak a scroll let- 
tered ' A nation's gratitude the hero's best reward.' 
This effigy was so managed that, with outstretched 
wings, it passed, occasionally, over the company. . . . 
The windows of the room were elegantly curtained 
with the ' striped bunting ' spangled with stars, and 
whichever way the eye turned it fell on some object 
to delight the sense and gratify the patriotic enthusi- 
asm that overflowed every bosom. The music gallery 
was filled with gentlemen amateurs, and their excel- 
lent performances added not a little to embellish and 
adorn the whole. 

" The vice-presidents were Joseph H. Nicholson, 
Esq., Captain Samuel Sterett, Major Isaac McKim, 
Colonel James Biays, Captain George Stiles, and 
Major Thomas Tenant; and the company, amounting 
to between two and three hundred gentlemen, sat 
down to dinner a little before five o'clock. Dignified 
order, with heartfelt animation and joy, held uninter- 
rupted sway until nine in the evening, when the com- 
pany broke up, and each went home rejoicing that he 
had seen that day, so honorable to all concerned in the 
tribute of gratitude to the hero of Erie. 

" As the several toasts were announced, the music 
struck up a patriotic air. But when this was repeated 



AFTER THE VICTORY. iii 

by the vice-president, the company directed its atten- 
tion in silence toward the musicians, wondering why 
they did not play. Suddenly the roll of a drum, as if 
first at a great distance, was heard behind the trans- 
parency, and every eye was turned that way. The roll 
grew louder and louder, and having reached its entire 
force, down came the British flag from the enemy's ships 
in the foreground of the picture; then the band struck 
up ' Yankee Doodle,' and the British flag was hoisted 
under the American ensign. Very few of the company 
were aware of this; it is folly to attempt to describe the 
feelings it excited." 

Boston also honored the hero of Erie by presenting 
him with a set of silver service, a sword, and the free- 
dom of the city. Besides this, he received many gifts 
of plate from private individuals. 

On the 30th of May Perry was once more in New- 
port. A strange state of afifairs existed along the 
American coasts and in the waters of the Sound. The 
English had at their disposal at this time such an im- 
mense fleet of vessels that there was hardly an inhabited 
point on the American coast from which one could not 
see a sail of the enemy almost every day or so. The 
vessels of the American navy in getting to sea, no 
matter from what port, were compelled to run the 
gauntlet of the watchers in the of^ng. In many cases 
American ships of war had been blockaded for so long 
that they were hauled up shallow rivers and disman- 



THE HERO OF ERIE. 



tied, their guns being placed in land batteries for pro- 
tection from attack. Upon one occasion the English 
fleet had blockaded, in the harbor of New London, all 
the armed vessels of any consequence belonging to the 
Americans on the New England coast, with the ex- 
ception of two. 

Commodore Perry was ostensibly in command of 
what was known as a naval station, but he had nothing 
more formidable to fall back upon for active operations 
than a few of the old and utterly useless gunboats that 
had been built during the administration of Mr. Jeffer- 
son — little one-gun sloops, scarcely larger than fishing 
smacks. 

Of course, the inactivity chafed and galled Perry's 
eager spirit. His trip to Washington had brought him 
some promise and he hoped soon to have a sea-going 
command. In the meantime there was nothing to do 
but wait. 

On the evening of the 30th a seaman hurried up 
to Perry's house, bearing a message that a fisherman 
had told him that an English sloop of war had just 
chased a little Swedish brig on to the rocks in 
the harbor entrance, and that the boats of the 
man-o'-war had put ofif, evidently intending to de- 
stroy her. Immediately Perry jumped to his feet. 
A runner was sent into the village to call together 
the local company of militia, and then Perry, 
heading a body of sailors, made for the shore, drag- 



AFTER THE VICTORY. 113 

ging after them the only available gun, an old six- 
pounder. 

They managed that day to fight off the boats of the 
sloop, but the next morning she came closer in, and 
under the heavy fire of her guns succeeded in landing a 
party who set fire to her prey. Then, having accom- 
plished her object, she squared her yards, and taking 
advantage of the land breeze, put off to the southwest. 
Before she had gone very far, however, the sailors, 
under Perry's directions, had clambered down the 
rocks and, launching a small boat, had made their 
way out to the burning vessel. Without much diffi- 
culty they succeeded in putting out the flames and 
saved almost her entire cargo. 

What had caused the English vessel to leave so has- 
tily was soon evident, for two large barges, mounting 
twelve-pounders, appeared round the point. They 
were manned by militia companies from farther up the 
river that Perry had sent for the preceding evening. 

All this little skirmishing must have seemed mighty 
small and unimportant to a man who had commanded a 
fleet and humbled the veterans of Nelson, but he had 
taken hold of the situation with all of the old thorough- 
ness and understanding; and soon there was to come 
a better opportunity for the display of his gifts of leader- 
ship. 



CHAPTER XI. 

AT NEWPORT STATION. 

All through the months of June and July Perry- 
was busy hastening from one place to another, in 
order to direct the defenses made at various points 
against the depredations of the British. At the little 
port of Wiscasset, Me., on June 26th, he repelled an at- 
tack made in considerable force by the boats of a small 
squadron of the enemy. Perry had all the faculties 
that mark leaders of men — a quick judgment of char- 
acter, a firmness of purpose, a superb self-reliance, and 
a capacity for organization. It was this last that 
made him so useful to the long-shore people. Accom- 
panied by a handful of sailors, he would appear at a 
threatened point, and out of the half-frightened and 
badly armed villagers construct a little army — skirm- 
ishers, infantry and artillery, sappers, miners, and com- 
missary. His word of command was obeyed instantly, 
and his plans were followed to the letter. Be- 
sides all this, he had the wonderful personal magnet- 
ism that made men an*xious to serve him. Had he 
been present at Wareham, Mass., on the 21st of June, 

the inhabitants would not have stood idly by on the 
114 



AT NEWPORT STATION. 115 

hills and watched the torch threaten their defenseless 
homes. But perhaps they were not altogether to 
blame, and, at the risk of digression, it might be best 
to tell here of the little incident that is well-nigh for- 
gotten now, but still Hngers in the traditions of east- 
ern Massachusetts. 

Early on the morning of the 21st of June, 1814, as 
we have stated, two or three strange sail were seen 
through the light fog crawling up the coast, and even 
before all the inhabitants could be called together by 
the ringing of the meeting-house bell, the hoarse bawl- 
ings of the boatswains could be heard as the anchors 
were let go in the little harbor. There were no can- 
non in the town, with the exception of an old Revolu- 
tionary six-pounder mounted near the wharf, and for 
that there was little powder. But still the young 
men and boys gathered in sufficient force to have 
made able resistance to a landing party. Unfortu- 
nately, however, there was none to lead them, and con- 
fusion reigned everywhere. When the fog lifted, it 
w^as seen that six large barges filled with marines and 
armed sailors were making in toward the land. In 
the leading barge was an ol^cer waving a white flag. 
At once some one displayed a like signal on the pier, 
and soon all the boats were within hailing distance. 
A strange conversation now took place between the 
officer and one of the village selectmen, who took it 
upon himself to speak for his fellow-townsfolk. 



ii6 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

" What is it that you wish? " asked the selectman, 
as if the intentions of the armed force from the ene- 
my's ships could be mistaken. 

" To pass the time of day," replied the ofificer, 
" and incidentally to request the gracious privilege of 
landing a few friends of mine, and I trust that when 
you hear me out you will offer no serious objections." 

All the time the boats were drifting farther in, and 
as the officer spoke he addressed a few orders to the 
men nearest him. There was a smile on his lips. 

" What is it you have to say? " again inquired the 
village spokesman. (This was not the way Master- 
Commandant Perry would have acted altogether.) 

" We understand that there are Government stores 
here in great quantities, and as they must be a burden 
to you, we desire but to relieve you of the responsi- 
bility," was the response. 

It was certainly a strange sight — the Wareham 
men, all with arms in their hands, crowding around 
the selectman, and the boats so close now that one 
had made fast to the wharf with a boat hook, the crew 
nervous, but all agrin. A hurried consultation was 
held by the Warehamites. 

There were no public stores, in the strict sense of 
the word, in the town at that present moment, and 
a determination was reached without debate. 

" If you agree to respect private property, and to 
seize or destroy only the munitions or stores of the 



AT NEWPORT STATION. 117 

Government, you may land without molestation," said 
the old donkey on the wharf graciously. 

" Agreed! " replied the officer. " If I am not fired 
upon or interfered with, private property will be left 
alone. But, to prove the good will of your intentions, 
withdraw your men to the crest of yonder hill, as it 
might faciHtate matters and prevent blunders." 

There were some mutterings among the more cour- 
ageous of the villagers, but apparently there was noth- 
ing else to do, and reluctantly they withdrew up the 
street to the hilltop. 

Now, what followed may have been an error of 
judgment on the part of the English Heutenant; or 
perhaps he reckoned wrongly in thinking he could 
control his men; or perhaps some reckless Yankee did 
not observe the letter of the unsigned treaty, and fired 
a shot; or maybe the Englishmen, thinking of the old 
adage, " All's fair in love and war," first plainly played 
toss with the truth. At any rate, this is what hap- 
pened: 

Only a short distance down the shore a vessel was 
building on the stocks. Hardly had half of the boats' 
crews scrambled on the pier when a small party, headed 
by the garrulous officer himself, put straight for her, 
and before one could say " Jack Robinson " she was 
going up in roaring flames. There seemed no doubt 
in his mind that she belonged to the State, although 
she was only intended to war against the peaceful cod. 



ii8 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

The storehouses near the shore were next broken 
into, but most of them were empty or contained only 
barrels of dried fish. The old six-pounder might prop- 
erly have come under the head of " material of war," 
and it was not spared, but was plumped into the waters 
of the bay. Close to the shore was an old stragghng 
building, built partly of brick and partly of wood; it 
was a small cotton mill. Whether or not it was fired 
by order of the British commander will doubtless never 
be known, but, suffice it, suddenly flames burst from 
the windows, and in a few minutes all the wooden part 
was roaring merrily away, endangering the neigh- 
boring houses and threatening wholesale conflagra- 
tion. 

The old selectman had been restraining some of 
the young hot bloods with difficulty. Badly armed and 
equipped, they would have stood little chance against 
the marines and sailors if they had ventured to attack 
them, and perhaps discretion was the better part in 
this case. But when the English were about to take 
to their boats again, down the hill stalked the old 
man, followed by a dozen or so of the village elders. 

" Your conduct has been outrageous, sir! " thun- 
dered one of the latter, shaking his fist in the lieu- 
tenant's face. 

"You have broken your sacred promise!" put in 
another. 

"Seize these men!" said the lieutenant angrily, 



AT NEWPORT STATION. 119 



in reply, and before they knew it the twelve elders 
were bundled over the side of the pier into the boats. 

The people gathered on the hill made a rush, but 
the officer, who must have been a cool one, slipped a 
pistol from his belt and confronted them. 

" If a shot is fired, it will be so much the worse 
for your friends! " he shouted, and then, without hur- 
rying, he stepped down into his barge. 

All this goes to show what lack of proper leader- 
ship will do. If Perry and his faithful body guard of 
sixteen Jack tars had been there, the story would 
have been different. He would not have allowed a 
flag of truce to be accompanied by six boat loads of 
armed men. 

But to return to the poor captives in the stern 
sheets of the barges. Their protestations were of no 
avail, and some, who saw before them a long term of 
imprisonment as " English sailors," broke down com- 
pletely. But when they had reached the fleet the rank- 
ing officer assured them that they had nothing to fear, 
and they were put ashore some four miles below the 
town. 

Now, all this angered Perry to such an extent that 
in his report of the affair he asked to have more 
adequate means given him to prevent the recurrence 
of these incursions, and during the month following 
he was busy organizing the militia and establishing a 
coast guard in his district. But soon he was to leave 



THE HERO OF ERIE. 



for very active service, although he received no orders 
to take part in it, and it was his own dauntless and ad- 
venturous spirit that dictated his movements. 

Long weeks before this — in fact, shortly after the 
battle of Erie — Perry had been promised the command 
of the new frigate Java, then building at the city of 
Baltimore. He had been present at the laying of her 
keel, and since that day, although far from the spot, 
he had kept interested in her plans and development. 
She had grown to be the apple of his eye, and he was 
looking forward eagerly to the day when he should 
tread her quarter-deck and once more feel that he 
was a sailor. His Hfe at Newport, surrounded by fam- 
ily and friends, was pleasant and happy, but his na- 
ture rebelled against the inactivity. 

One day there came to him the news that the 
enemy had landed in great force in Virginia and Mary- 
land, that a battle had been fought, the Americans 
routed, and Washington, the capital city, had been 
burned, and that the shores of the Chesapeake were 
threatened. Baltimore was in danger, and perhaps 
Perry's mind dwelt for a moment on the beautiful 
frigate in the shipyard. 

At any rate, his place was where he could serve 
his country, and without hesitation he packed up a few 
belongings, sailor fashion, and started top speed for 
the seat of war. 

All the subsequent happenings require some in- 



AT NEWPORT STATION. 121 

troduction, and it is best to make a separate chapter 
telling of the important doings that were then cast- 
ing great gloom and trouble throughout the coun- 
try; for our arms on land had suffered serious reverses, 
and had it not been for the brilliant actions of our 
little navy on the high seas, the nation vi^ould have 
been in a very depressed mood indeed. 



CHAPTER XII. 

OFF TO THE SOUTH. 

Bladensburg, Md., is a little town but a few miles 
from the city of Washington. It is within easy driv- 
ing distance, and in the year 1814 was nothing but 
a sleepy village, with a few scattering houses on the 
wooded slopes of the surrounding hills. It was a 
famous meeting place for duelists in those old days, 
and many "affairs of honor" were settled there; but 
it is chiefly known as being the battle ground of one 
of the most disastrous meetings between our troops 
and those of the invading English — disastrous to the 
American arms, perhaps, in its immediate conse- 
quences only, as it had small effect upon the general 
conduct of the war, but none the less hard to bear 
for all that. As it was the news of this battle that 
brought Perry to the scene as fast as horses could 
bring him over the hundreds of miles of rough roads, 
it is easy to see how important a place the village 
then took in the minds of the country at large, for it 
was the gate through which the British entered for 
the destruction of the capital of the country. 

On the 24th of August the little army that had 
122 



OFF TO THE SOUTH. 123 

landed from the Chesapeake fleet marched on Wash- 
ington, under the command of the British general 
Ross. The total force was not far from five thou- 
sand men, consisting of regulars, marines, and sailors 
equipped as infantry. But horsemen were out all 
through the countryside, calHng the miHtia to rally, 
and warning the inhabitants of the enemy's approach. 
They gathered at Bladensburg from all directions, and 
at noon everything was in great confusion. There 
seemed to be no head of afifairs among the motley col- 
lection of farmers, armed with everything from rifles 
to brass blunderbusses. A small detachment of Ameri- 
can regulars, numbering some three hundred and fifty, 
and a few volunteers from the Potomac River and 
the city of Washington, under the command of Com- 
modore Joshua Barney, composed the backbone of 
the American body, and did most of the resistance. 

The battle opened at one o'clock, and it was soon 
perceived that the lack of training and discipline of the 
raw militia, and the dearth of proper leadership, fore- 
told defeat, although the enemy were tired by a long 
march and fatigued by the heat of the day, for it was 
scorching hot. There is not time or space to describe 
the action here, but the militia did not stand well 
under fire, and seemed to lack all principle of organ- 
ized fighting. But there was much to be said in their 
defense. The majority were old men and boys, and 
a great proportion did not arrive until after the battle 



124 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

had begun. Commodore Barney and his Httle band 
stood firm, as did the regulars, and the loss of killed 
and wounded was among them mostly, the brave old 
sailor being wounded and taken prisoner late in the 
afternoon. Before sunset the vanguard of the English 
had entered Washington. 

English historians make no excuse for the doings 
that followed, and General Ross and some of his offi- 
cers quite congratulated themselves on what was prob- 
ably as great a piece of vandalism as was ever perpe- 
trated in " civilized warfare," for the torch was ap- 
plied to the Capitol, the President's house, and to all 
the public buildings; even some private edifices suf- 
fered, and all of the important records and documents 
were destroyed in the library. 

The navy yard had been set on fire by order of the 
American officer in command, to prevent important 
munitions of war from falling into the hands of the 
invaders. On the following evening the English left 
Washington in haste, for the forces of the surround- 
ing country were gathering, and so sudden was their 
departure that they left behind almost all of their 
wounded for the Americans to take care of. In the 
meantime a portion of their naval force had proceeded 
up the river as far as Alexandria, on the Virginia 
shore. The town was absolutely without defenses, as 
the only fort that could serve as any protection had 
been abandoned and destroyed. 



OFF TO THE SOUTH. 125 

This was the state of affairs that Perry found ex- 
isting when he arrived at Washington — a terror- 
stricken community, and stark and blackened ruins of 
what had been the finest buildings in the country. 
But he was glad to find some of his old comrades of 
the Tripolitan war gathered there for the same pur- 
pose as his own — namely, to offer their services in any 
capacity for the further protection of the State or for 
the punishment of the enemy. Among them were 
Rogers and Porter, both of whom had gained honor 
and distinction on the high seas in command of Yan- 
kee ships, and now they were eager to serve on land 
and turn soldier for the time being, without much 
chance for glory. 

The poor inhabitants of Alexandria had been 
forced to take the English practically to their homes 
and hearthstones, for, in addition to delivering up all 
public property in the town, they were compelled to 
feed the fleet and to work night and day at raising 
some small craft that had been sunk in the river. The 
English commander paid for all this, it must be con- 
fessed, but the payment was made in bills on the Eng- 
lish Government, which were somewhat difficult of 
collection, it can be easily perceived, and were valu- 
able as autographs and mementoes, hardly more. 

Rogers and Porter and Perry found plenty to do, 
and but little time in which to do it. There were 
forces to organize, batteries to build, and expeditions 



126 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

to drive the enemy out of the position he then held 
in the river. One of them — an attempt to surprise 
and dislodge the British ships by means of a small 
flotilla of fire vessels — failed because of lack of wind; 
and when, on the 6th of September, the enemy moved 
down the river, the hastily constructed batteries were 
not heavy enough to successfully oppose or cope with 
the English guns. 

Perry had taken command of one of the hurriedly 
improvised forts that had been erected on the shore 
at a place known as Indian Head (now the Govern- 
ment proving ground for heavy ordnance). He knew 
that the few six-pounder cannon he had would prove 
most ineffectual, and he lent all his efforts to secure 
and mount some guns of larger caliber; but most of 
them had been destroyed in the navy yard, and the 
case looked hopeless. At last he was informed that 
some miles away there was an old eighteen-pound 
gun, a relic of the Revolution. Whether or not there 
was time to place it in position was doubtful, but he 
determined to try, and so close did he " make con- 
nections," that he had mounted the gun but a few 
minutes before the firing up the river told him of the 
approach of the fleet. 

As he supposed, the fire of the six-pounders 
amounted to nothing ; but that one heavy piece, 
aimed and fired by the " hero of Erie " himself, de- 
layed the enemy for over an hour, and directed against 



OFF TO THE SOUTH. 127 

that single gun were the broadsides of two frigates, 
two sloops, and five smaller gunboats. 

How long this spunky little battery would have 
annoyed the British vessels is mere guesswork, but 
the powder ran out, and then, and not till then, did 
Perry order his men to retire. When he came to 
reckon up his losses, he found to his delight that he 
had lost no men and had but one slightly wounded. 

But the enemy had disappeared down the river, 
and a consultation of officers was held in Washing- 
ton to determine what would be the best plan to fol- 
low in order to harass them and prevent a recurrence 
of such things as had taken place at the capital. 

Perry and Commodore Rogers were sure that the 
next point of attack would be the city of Baltimore, 
and, leaving the ruined town, they repaired thither 
posthaste. How right they were in their surmise will 
be told in another chapter. 



CHAPTER XIII. 



AT BALTIMORE. 



Commodore Perry sat in the coffee room of the 
Fountain Inn at Baltimore. He had pulled off his 
boots, that were plashed and muddy, and was lying 
back in an easy-chair, gazing out of the window. It 
seemed hard to imagine that only a short time before, 
in the big dining room at this same tavern, he had 
been given a dinner and reception the like of which 
had never been equaled in the country up to that time. 
Now, here he was at the same place, but the condi- 
tions of his visit were entirely different. He had come 
thither as a volunteer to fight in the defense of the 
city whose citizens had extended him such open-handed 
hospitality. 

The enemy were at their very doors. The large 

fleet in the Chesapeake, acting under orders of the 

British admirals Cochrane and Cockburn, had been 

concentrated for an attack on Fort McHenry and the 

batteries of Covington and the Lazaretto. Only the 

day previous a little battle had been fought near 

Moorsfields between a detachment of English sailors 

and marines that had formed a landing party from one 
128 



AT BALTIMORE. 129 

of the frigates and three companies of Maryland vol- 
unteers under Colonel Read. Although no details of 
the action were then known in the city, the fact that 
the British had retreated to their vessels had occa- 
sioned much rejoicing. 

It was only the day before that Perry had paid a 
visit to the vessel that was to be his future command, 
the Java. She was almost finished, and he had looked 
with pride at the great fabric as she lay there at anchor 
ofif the shipyard. It would be a bitter personal disap- 
pointment to him if he should have to lose her, but 
he knew well enough that nothing would so delight 
the hearts of the English leaders as to set fire to her. 
But Perry also well knew that the volunteers and 
militia of Pennsylvania and Maryland that had gath- 
ered for the protection of the city were of a different 
caliber from the ill-disciplined and poorly equipped 
countrymen that had met the enemy at Bladensburg. 

Hearing the door of the cofifee room open suddenly, 
Perry rose and turned in time to meet a rain-soaked 
figure in a greatcoat, whose voluminous folds wrapped 
him from head to foot. The stranger threw oflf the 
heavy cloak and stamped his feet hard upon the fioor, 
sending the mud flying in all directions. 

" Well met, indeed, commodore! " exclaimed Perry, 
as he recognized in the dim light the weather-beaten 
features of Commodore Rogers. 

" I have news for you, sir," said the latter, speak- 



I30 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

ing in his gruff but cordial voice, " and news that may 
perhaps surprise you." 

" Out with it, then," Perry exclaimed, " for I'm all 
impatience. Have you heard from the fight of yester- 
day? " 

" 'Tis just that that I wish to speak with you 
about," Rogers returned. " I have seen Read, and 
interviewed some of his prisoners. Sir Peter Parker, 
who was in command of the Menelaus, was killed in the 
fight — shot by one of Read's riflemen. His body was 
taken on board the ship, and she has now dropped 
down the bay to join the rest of the squadron. How 
I should like to measure yardarms with her in the old 
Constitution! " 

Perry did not reply for a minute. He remembered 
having seen the Menelaus before the outbreak of the 
war, and upon one occasion he had met Sir Peter, when 
he was a young lieutenant in the Mediterranean. 

" One could not wish for a braver or more gallant 
opponent," he said. " I should much have Hked the 
honor of meeting him myself. But we have turned 
soldiers now, commodore, or, better, you have turned 
artilleryman. I am anything they may choose to make 
of me." 

" True enough what you say of me," Rogers re- 
turned; "and to-morrow, if the enemy attack us, I 
shall have charge of the flotilla men of the city bat- 
teries. I have some good old men-o'-war's men under 



AT BALTIMORE. 131 

me — truculent fellows, who will answer for their guns, 
I warrant you. What post will you take, sir? " 

" I have been busy helping Webster at Fort Cov- 
ington, and expect to hear to-night to what position 
I shall be assigned," Perry rejoined. " Unless I am 
wrong and miss my reckoning altogether, to-morrow 
will prove an eventful day for all of us." 

" I well believe that," Rogers replied, " but I re- 
joice to say that we are prepared, and that General 
Strieker has under him three of the best regiments in 
the regular service. There is nothing like a touch of 
the discipHned and professional fighting man to steady 
the nerves of the volunteer." 

" Yes, methinks that our friend General Ross may 
meet with a surprise on the morrow." Perry said this 
with a half smile, for since the affair at Washington 
Ross's boasting had reached the ears of the Americans. 

Rogers had stepped to the door, and was roaring 
down the hall lustily for the " Boots " to come and 
take his muddy foot gear, and when this was accom- 
plished he turned to Perry again. 

" Ross says that he will take the city, and he doesn't 
care if it rains militia. It's more likely to rain lead and 
iron, and I trust it will be to his liking. But there is 
more news," the old sailor added, hitching up his chair 
closer to Perry's. " We have discovered the whole plan 
of the English force now in our waters." 

" And how did that come about, pray, may I 



132 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

ask? " questioned Perry, straightening up and listen- 
ing eagerly. 

" A letter was found in the pocket of a young Eng- 
lish officer dead in the field, and, if it is true that his 
information was correct, we can see how important they 
regard the capture of this city in making up their 
schedule. I saw the letter myself, and I can tell you 
that it was most interesting reading. But knowledge 
of an enemy's intentions is much like getting the 
weather gauge of him — an advantage that, by the way, 
we know all about, commodore, eh? " 

" But the plan? " interposed Perry. " Have they 
any definite object in hovering along the coast?" 

" That they have, indeed," Rogers answered, " and 
in substance it is as follows: From this letter it would 
seem that the plan was not left to the admirals, but 
was devised at nothing less than a cabinet meeting 
previous to the departure of the fleets from England. 
It was the intention to capture and destroy the city 
of Washington — in which, alas! they have unfortu- 
nately been so successful; then to follow with the 
attack and destruction of this city, Charleston, and Sa- 
vannah, and to end up the whole matter with a con- 
centration of forces upon New Orleans. It is for this 
latter purpose that the great fleet is gathering at the 
Bermudas. Ship after ship is coming in there loaded 
down with the victors of the Peninsula; and, more- 
over, they are intending to make out of the southern 



AT BALTIMORE. 133 

portion of Louisiana a British dependency. There is 
assurance for you! " 

" It strikes me," observed Perry, looking out the 
window at the rainy street, " that they are taking much 
for granted. ' In stormy latitudes never reckon on a 
fair wind until you get it,' is a good motto." 

" I seem to feel it in my bones that we will be suc- 
cessful to-morrow," observed the older man, " and God 
grant that this part of their programme and all that 
is to follow will go sadly astray! " 

" Amen to that! " said Perry. " I think they would 
give a good deal to lay their hands upon the new frigate 
building at the yards." 

" Indeed they would," Rogers answered, " and that 
would disappoint some one I know most terribly." 

Although it was not publicly announced that Perry 
was to have command of the Java, it was well known 
in the service that he had been promised her, and few 
there were who begrudged him the honor; for, al- 
though the separate victories at sea had added glory 
and luster to the little American navy. Perry's was the 
only one that might really be said to be of national 
importance. This was universally recognized, and his- 
torians of the later day have not failed to dwell upon 
the fact. 

But to return to the two old comrades and their 
conversation. 

" Her very name," said Commodore Rogers, re- 



134 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

ferriiig to the last subject spoken of, " is a thorn in 
the flesh of every English officer. I should like to 
take her into the English Channel, or, better, anchor 
her under the guns of Gibraltar or Malta." 

" So should I," Perry returned, mentally adding to 
himself the words, " And some day I mean to." 

At this moment the tap boy appeared with candles, 
for it was growing dark, and set about preparing a 
table in the corner of the room. Soon both of^cers 
were seated. 

" It is too bad that Porter is not here to enjoy 
this," Rogers observed, washing down a mouthful of 
mutton pasty with a swallow of port wine. 

" It is, indeed," Perry returned. " And now I'll 
propose a toast: Here's to success of our arms on land 
and sea; here's to officers and men. Here's to straight 
shots, brave hearts, and to each star on our flag! " 

" And lasting confusion to the enemies of Ameri- 
ca," added Commodore Rogers. 

Then both rose to their feet and drank the toast 
standing. Hardly had they finished their meal and 
settled themselves down in the easy-chairs again when 
a wet and bedraggled messenger, in a uniform that 
proclaimed him to be half soldier and half sailor, ap- 
peared at the door. 

" General Strieker's compliments, gentlemen," he 
said. " All officers are ordered to report to their 
posts." 



AT BALTIMORE. 135 

" I suppose that means us," Rogers observed, ris- 
ing hastily. " No sleep in a bed for me this night." 

'' Nor for me either," returned Perry, following the 
elder officer to the door, where Rogers was roaring 
once more for his boots and greatcoat. 

A few minutes later they had both passed out into 
the dark, rainy night. All through the city messen- 
gers were hurrying, and a body of troops, following 
the tap of a rain-soaked drum, swept by the corner on 
the double-quick. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

DEFENDING THE CITY. 

When day broke after the storm there was a 
strange sight to be seen. Off the mouth of the Pa- 
tapsco River lay huddled a fleet of forty-two sail. Tak- 
ing advantage of the light wind and favorable tide, 
they had crept close in to land late the previous even- 
ing, with boats out carefully feeling their way ahead 
of them with a lead. 

The heaviest ships of the line had been anchored 
across the channel, while the sloops of war and smaller 
craft, that had been lightened to decrease their 
draught, worked their way nearer to shore. 

It was an anxious moment for the American forces 
in the trenches and small forts that had been erected 
for the defense of the city. The landing place that 
the British had chosen was some twelve miles distant, 
and, unfortunately, at that point no batteries had been 
erected to oppose them. Late in the afternoon some 
five thousand redcoats and four thousand marines had 
reached the shore In safety, and by the morning of 
the 1 2th they were in readiness to begin their ad- 
vance. 

136 



DEFENDING THE CITY. 137 

In the meantime the frigates had made their way 
up the river, and with sixteen bomb vessels had an- 
chored within about two miles of Fort McHenry. 

And now, although the hero of Erie bore no promi- 
nent part in the operations that followed, it is well to 
describe the condition of affairs and all that passed 
under his immediate observation. 

Fort McHenry was commanded by Lieutenant- 
Colonel George Armistead, of the United States artil- 
lery; at the Lazaretto was stationed Lieutenant Rutter, 
at the head of some artillerymen, sailors, and volun- 
teers; and at Fort Covington were Rogers and Lieu- 
tenant Newcomb, of the navy, with a force of about 
three hundred men. Near by was a six-gun battery 
that had been hastily erected and placed under com- 
mand of Lieutenant Webster. Back of this were lines- 
of intrenchments and breastworks, behind which lay 
hidden the militia and the volunteers from the city 
of Baltimore, who had bravely turned out almost to 
a man. 

Li all, at the forts and batteries there were about 
twelve hundred men, while the inner lines of fortifica- 
tions sheltered perhaps four thousand. All the forces 
were under the command of Major-General Samuel 
Smith, who was assisted by General Winder, of the 
United States army, and by General Strieker, of Bal- 
timore. Strieker's brigade, composed principally of 

riflemen and infantry and Pennsylvania and Maryland 
10 



138 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

volunteers, had been dispatched to intercept the ad- 
vance of the British invasion, that was headed by Gen- 
eral Ross, seconded by none less than Admiral Cochrane 
himself, who commanded the marine detachment. 

This was the position at ten o'clock on the morn- 
ing of the 1 2th. Scouts had brought back the news 
of the enemy's approach, and by two o'clock in the 
afternoon shots were exchanged between the outposts 
of General Strieker's brigade and the enemy, who had 
pushed on four miles thus far without meeting any 
opposition. 

Beyond all doubt General Ross was congratulat- 
ing himself upon the ease with which he was going 
to duplicate the taking of Washington. 

The American artillery opened fire with great 
fierceness upon the British front, and the action be- 
came general, the Fifth and Twenty-seventh regulars 
sustaining the brunt of the attack in a splendid man- 
ner. But the American forces were greatly outnum- 
bered, and, owing to the length of the enemy's lines 
and the situation of the ground, Strieker found it im- 
possible after a while to use artillery or cavalry to any 
advantage, and thus the main defense was made by 
the muskets of the foot soldiers and the rifles of a 
small detachment of sharpshooters posted on the left 
of the line. So rapid and effective was the fire that 
this small body of perhaps seventeen hundred men suc- 
ceeded in stopping the enemy's forward movement; 



DEFENDING THE CITY. 139 

and it was here that General Ross met his doom, fall- 
ing with several other British officers as he emerged 
at the head of his column from a small patch of 
woods. 

Now, owing to the fact that Strieker feared that 
his fiank might be turned, and that if this happened 
he would be cut off from re-enforcements, he retreated 
slowly, back upon the line of intrenchments before the 
city. 

The American loss was trifling compared with 
that of the English; and Colonel Brooke, who had suc- 
ceeded to the command at the death of General Ross, 
advanced no farther than the line which General 
Strieker had held, and there encamped. 

It was a busy night for the Americans. There was 
no rest for them. Picks and shovels were plied indus- 
triously, and when the next day dawned all the in- 
trenchments had been strengthened, and new earth- 
works had been thrown up completely covering the 
lines of attack. Not much was accomplished this day 
by either side, although Colonel Brooke pushed for- 
ward to within a mile of the trenches, drove in some 
of the outposts, and by nightfall was apparently pre- 
paring for an attack in the darkness. But nothing 
occurred to break the stillness, although Strieker's 
force slept upon their arms, prepared for instant action. 

General Strieker, who had gone down to the front 
with some men of Stansbury's and Foreman's brigade, 



I40 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

which was entirely made up of seamen and marines 
taken from the command under Commodore Rogers, 
looked out over the breastworks at dawn of the 14th. 
He had walked to the front in company with Captain 
Bird, who was then in command of the United States 
dragoons, and from the vantage point which they had 
selected he could look down the road toward the posi- 
tion of the enemy's encampment. 

It had been a pitch-dark night, and the rain had 
fallen heavily. The roads were muddy, and the earth- 
works had been almost washed away in some places; 
the trenches where the American troops had passed 
the night were ankle-deep in water. The poor men 
were tired, and for three days had been soaked to the 
skin; yet they were all prepared for the battle which 
no one doubted would take place, for the guns of the 
fleet had been pounding all the night at the forts on 
the water front. 

As the general looked toward the woods, and as 
the light broadened, he turned to Captain Bird, who 
was at his elbow. 

" Surely, I think, captain," he said, " that if the 
enemy were there we would see something of him 
by this time, and I judge that we would have heard 
from him also. Do you think it possible that he could 
have left?" 

*' I hardly think so," was the captain's rejoinder. 
" It was reported that they were waiting for re- 



DEFENDING THE CITY. 141 

enforcements, but no outposts being visible does seem 
strange, I'll grant you." 

Evidently the stillness and lack of movement at 
the front had attracted the attention of other officers 
also, and the curiosity of the men themselves had been 
aroused, for all along the line heads appeared, and soon 
the earthworks were black with watching figures. 
Presently a half score of men, under orders of General 
Strieker, darted out across the fields toward where 
the British had been, some following the road and 
others boldly plunging into the woods. Not a sound 
was heard, and soon some of the men were seen re- 
turning on the run. 

The enemy had retreated! Soon the bugles were 
singing for the cavalry and the dragoons to start in 
pursuit. Perhaps the English had discovered that it 
had " rained militia " with a vengeance. 

So much for the doings on the land side of the 
city approaches, and now let us return to the opera- 
tions of the English fleet that on the 12th we had 
left anchored in the form of a semicircle in front of 
the forts and the city batteries, but outside of gun- 
shot. 

It was here that one of the most stirring scenes 
of the war had been enacted, and one that had been 
immediately under Perry's eyes and in which he had 
taken no small part. Fort McHenry was about two 
miles below the city, and on the morning of the 13th 



142 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

six bomb vessels and several armed with the destruc- 
tive rockets that the English then employed had 
begun an attack that had been continued unceasingly 
until three o'clock in the afternoon; but owing to 
the distance chosen by the English commander, little 
harm had been done up to that hour, and the Ameri- 
cans had reserved their fire vmtil the vessels should 
approach within the range at which their ordnance 
could accomplish some results. This may have en- 
couraged the Englishmen in their attack, but the 
fierce fire that they received was now too much for 
them. From the fort and shore batteries shot and 
shell rained down upon them, and but a few minutes 
was enough to compel them to slip their cables and 
wear off. 

Great was the satisfaction and delight of the 
Americans, who thought they saw in this evidences 
that the enemy wished to discontinue the struggle; 
but all those of greater experience knew that such 
a shght discomfiture could produce no lasting result, 
and that the bulldog courage and tenacity of the Eng- 
lish would lead them to much further and more active 
demonstrations. 

While the forces under General Strieker were 
busily engaged in the night throwing up earthworks, 
the artillerymen and the " sea-fencibles," as the sailors 
were called, were eagerly on the lookout, and the 
crews slept about their guns, seeking shelter in the 



DEFENDING THE CITY. 143 

bastions and under the improvised tents in the pour- 
ing and continuous rain. 

At ten o'clock Rogers and Perry, who were sleep- 
ing in a little house near the Covington fort, were 
aroused by a knocking on the door, and they were 
ready in an instant for any action. 

An old quartermaster who was acting as a ser- 
geant of artillery stood there with his tarpaulin hat 
in his hand, the rain trickling down his grizzled 
face. 

" There seems to be some movement out in the 
river," he said. " At least, one of the sentries reported 
that he heard the click of a capstan, and that some 
of the vessels are getting at their anchor." 

" A night attack, perhaps," observed Perry. 

"I expected as much," returned Rogers; "but 
we have better guns this time than we had last 
week on the Potomac, and we'll make it warm for 
them." 

When they reached the shore all listened intently, 
but nothing could be heard. All at once Perry grasped 
Rogers by the arm. 

" Oars! Do you hear them? Yes, plainly, ofif there 
to the right. Listen!" 

" Oars, sure enough," Rogers returned, and, call- 
ing the quartermaster, he turned out the guard and 
passed the word that the enemy were ascending the 
Patapsco. 



144 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

Word was sent to the Lazaretto and the city bat- 
teries, and also to inform the barges that were an- 
chored close inshore, off the wharves. 

While the American troops were hastening to their 
stations and everything was being made ready to pre- 
pare for an attack, which they supposed would take 
place at daylight, a cheer was heard from up the river, 
and bright gashes of flame ripped out against the 
darkness. 

It was then perceived that a number of English 
barges with muffled oars had passed by the batteries 
and entered the river, in order to attack the forts 
and the city from the rear. Even the cheering of 
the Englishmen out in the water could be heard dis- 
tinctly, and, as if at a signal, their first gun had 
been answered by tremendous cannonading from 
the great vessels that were anchored in line oppo- 
site the fort. The glare of their guns lit the heavens, 
and the fiery paths of their rockets as they shot 
in toward the forts seamed and crossed the cloudy 
night. 

All along the shore the American batteries replied, 
their fire being principally directed against the barges, 
whose position was outlined by the flash of their own 
firing. The scene was magnificent and sublime, and 
one American, then present as a prisoner on board 
one of the English vessels, was so inspired by the 
sight that he has described it in verses that will last 



DEFENDING THE CITY. 145 

through the ages — as long as America has Americans 
to sing her praises, and a flag that represents Hberty, 
courage, and humanity. 

The Star-spangled Banner then sprang into life 
from the pen of Francis Scott Key, and all the school 
children who have sung it, and all those who know it 
by heart, have a complete picture in verse of the bom- 
bardment of Fort McHenry. 

It would seem that the long bombardment of the 
13th and the terrific cannonading of the night follow- 
ing would have almost smothered the little fort, but 
what does the poet say? 

" O say, can you see by the dawn's early light 

What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming. 
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, through the perilous fight, 

O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming? 
And the rockets' red glare, the bombs bursting in air, 
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there. 
Oh ! say, does that star-spangled banner yet wave 
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? 

" On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep, 
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes. 
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep, 

As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses ? 
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam, 
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream. 
'Tis the star-spangled banner ! Oh, long may it wave 
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave ! " 



146 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

What a joy it must have been to the eyes of all 
the Americans to have seen that flag floating over 
the ramparts when day broke! 

Occasionally Major Armistead would reply with a 
gun, in order to let those farther up the river know 
that he was yet in the land of the hving. 

The fleet was not damaged to any extent, but with 
the venturesome barges it was another story. Rogers's 
crew at Fort Covington and all the flotilla men 
poured into them such a destructive fire that only the 
darkness and their ceasing to reply saved them from 
complete annihilation. Two of the barges were sunk, 
and in the rest that managed to escape were many 
dead and wounded. The loss sustained by the Ameri- 
cans on shore was trifling in comparison. 

By seven o'clock on the morning of the 14th the 
British fire ceased. The vessels drew off into the 
Chesapeake, and Baltimore was saved. 

A contemporary writer makes a comment on the 
action in one of the " morals " that writers of that 
day apparently attempted to draw from almost every 
occurrence, but it is so apt in this connection that 
it might be well to quote it: 

" The disastrous result of this attack on Balti- 
more by a formidable land and naval force flushed 
with victory and confident of success adds another to 
the many evidences which the history of human af- 
fairs has furnished, that it does not belong to man to 



DEFENDING THE CITY. 147 

boast of his strength or achievements, and much less 
to indulge in sentiments of contempt for others." All 
of which is very true. 

As soon as it was seen that Baltimore was no 
longer to be the object of attack, Commodore Perry's 
duties at his own station called him to the North, 
and he set out with all speed for Newport. 



CHAPTER XV. 



A RESCUE. 



The early winter of 1816 passed by uneventfully, 
except for one exciting experience that will be related 
hereafter in this chapter. 

Perry was but thirty-one years of age, and yet at 
this time he was perhaps Newport's most distin- 
guished and important citizen. If anything happened 
where action and direction were needed in the super- 
intendence of the men at work, Perry was called upon. 
His appearance at a fire, for instance, was a signal for 
all to report to him for orders; and so used had he 
become to thus always holding himself in readiness 
for any emergency that it was said that he " slept 
with his boots on." 

During the year 181 5 he had been busily engaged 

in getting the Java ready to proceed to sea. She now 

lay in the harbor of Newport, under Perry's eye, and 

not a stick had been put into her that he had not 

inspected, and he knew the quality of every foot 

of the standing rigging and running gear. He was 

hoping that as soon as the inclement weather 

was over he should be sent to the Mediterranean, 
148 



A RESCUE. 149 



but time sped on, and he stayed quietly at New- 
port. 

On the loth of January, 181 6, while he was seated 
in his study reading, there came a knock on the door, 
and a breathless sailor stood there twirling his hat in 
his hands. 

" Well, my man, what can I do for you? " Perry 
inquired, in the rather fatherly tone that marks the 
officer when addressing a man of his own crew. 

" A messenger's arrived from Brenton's Neck, sir," 
spoke up the man, " with the information that a ves- 
sel is stranded on the reefs there, sir, and they say 
that there are several men to be seen lashed to the 
rigging. God help them in such weather as this!" 

It was blowing very hard. The dry, powdery snow 
swept over the ground into little drifts under the lee 
of every tree and fence-post. The waters of the bay 
looked black and angry, tossed and crossed by a suc- 
cession of feathery white caps. If one listened, the 
booming of the heavy surf against the icy rocks be- 
yond the harbor could be heard from the southward. 

" Step inside, my man," said Perry, ushering the 
sailor into the spacious hallway. " I will immediately 
repair to the yard. But, hold! perhaps it is better 
for me to prepare them for my coming. You will 
hurry there ahead of me, and tell the bargemen to 
meet me at the fish basin and have the barge ready 
to be put into the water." 



ISO THE HERO OF ERIE. 

'* Ay, ay, sir! " the man returned, touching his cap. 
*' I'm not a bargeman myself, but a right good oar, 
sir; ten years a whaler and four years in the Consti- 
tution. If there's a vacancy in the boat, might I ask 
for it?" 

" It is yours," Perry replied. " Report ready for 
duty." 

In fifteen minutes the commodore was seen com- 
ing down the snow-covered walk. The group of 
men huddled in the lee of the Government building 
stepped out to meet him and drew up at atten- 
tion. 

The coxswain of the barge saluted. " I've been 
down to see the wreck, sir," he said. " She is in plain 
sight from the rocks on the other side, but I doubt 
her holding together long. She's pounding very bad, 
sir." 

" Are the men still on her? " asked Perry quickly. 

" Yes, sir ; I could count eleven in the mizzen 
rigging." 

Perry glanced at the crew. Inside in the shel- 
tered waters of the bay it was rough and tumbling. 
What must it be outside, where the broad sweep of 
the Atlantic dashed in toward the iron-bound coast? 
The air was full of tiny icy particles, that stung the 
face and eyes and matted the hair and eyebrows; but, 
headed by the commodore, the men marched down 
to the basin, where the big barge swung from davits 



A RESCUE. 151 



under the shelter of a roof shed that extended over 
the water. 

It was the work but of a minute to lower her 
away, and Perry noticed with satisfaction that there 
was a place in the thwarts for the ex-whaleman who 
had been so anxious to accompany him. There were 
no laggards in the crew, but some of the men shook 
their heads ominously as they looked out toward the 
mouth of the harbor. 

" Come, my lads," cried Perry cheerily as he 
stepped into the stern sheets, " we are going to the 
rescue and relief of shipwrecked seamen! " 

In another instant he had given the order to shove 
off, and the men were bending at their oars. 

As they got out beyond the end of Goat Island 
the full force of the wind was felt. It seemed as if 
the barge at first made little headway even under 
the impetus of the twelve pairs of sturdy arms. The 
short, choppy seas thumped under the broad bow, and 
shot up constant jets of icy water that deluged the 
men from head to foot. But it was seen that they 
were gaining, and slowly the barge crept out to the 
harbor mouth, and there they began to feel the heave 
of the great surges that rolled in from the southward. 

The strong set of the tide at one time threatened 
to bring them in dangerously near to the point, but 
by strenuous efforts they weathered it, and, once clear 
of the land, the wreck of the schooner could be seen 



152 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

jammed on the reef not far from where the lightship 
now swings its warning, 

"Now, my lads," cried Perry, "there she is! Get 
your backs into your work. Pull all together!" 

The seamen, with set teeth, were putting every 
ounce they possessed into the backward heave, but 
the wind was blowing with terrific force. It threat- 
ened, as they lifted their oars out of the water, to tear 
them out of their hands. The barge would hang for 
a minute on the top of a wave, and then go racing 
down into a hollow so deep that those watching on 
shore would hold their breath. But inch by inch she 
gained against the wind. 

The cold and benumbed seamen on the schooner 
gave a feeble cheer as they saw what a fight was 
being made to reach them. Over an hour it took to 
row that scant two miles — an hour of constant heart- 
breaking work that none but the hardiest constitu- 
tions could have survived. 

The whaleman was pulling port stroke, and every 
now and then he would forget the man-o'-war train- 
ing and call out the old whaling phrases of encour- 
agement : 

" Now for ten good strokes, and ten more on top 
of 'em! Pull as if you was to win a wife, lads! Lift 
the sides out of her now! " and so on. 

The men would double their efforts, and soon but 
a half cable's length separated them from the shud- 



A RESCUE. 153 



dering, tottering wreck. The white-topped seas were 
breaking completely over her. Her bow was gone 
clear from the fore chains, and but little of her quarter- 
deck was above the water. 

Perry saw as he stood up, steadying himself with 
one hand on the coxswain's shoulder, that the wreck 
could hold together but a few minutes longer. 

It requires great skill to approach a stranded ves- 
sel in a heavy seaway, where there is danger, even 
when one is to leeward, that a back set may grind 
the rescuing boat to pieces against the sides of the 
wreck; but, after one unsuccessful attempt. Perry 
managed to get a rope passed between the barge and 
what was left of the schooner, and to his delight he 
counted eleven men still alive on board of her, al- 
though some were almost incapable of movement, and 
but for the strong lashings that bound them to the 
rigging would have been swept ofT long before. 

Few of the men had strength enough to help 
the barge's crew work in closer, but with great skill 
all were taken in over the bow and passed aft to the 
stern sheets. It was fortunate, indeed, that she was 
so large and able a sea boat, and could hold them all 
in comfort and safety. The men were busy fending 
of¥ pieces of wreckage that threatened to stave in the 
barge's sides, and it was a great relief when they cast 
off the bow line and turned the head in toward the 
shore. 



154 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

It was very different now, coming down before 
the wind. They would sway upon the top of a shoul- 
dering sea, tear along with its seething crest, and 
then apparently wait for another to heave them in 
toward the harbor mouth. Before they reached it the 
wrecked craft went all to pieces. In ten minutes they 
were almost under the shelter of the neck, and in less 
than half an hour the barge and her happy crew were 
safely in the basin, where a large crowd had gathered 
to greet the rescuers and the rescued. The cheers 
of the Java's men sounded above the gale. 

The wrecked vessel proved to be the schooner 
Eliza, commanded and owned by Captain Charles 
Gorton, a Newport man. Most of the crew were 
Rhode Islanders also, and Perry's popularity in the 
State grew into a deep affection, that was felt for him 
by all the inhabitants thereof. 

A contemporary writer, in referring to this rescue, 
and after describing the manner of it, wrote as fol- 
lows: 

" This simple occurrence speaks more forcibly than 
the most elaborate panegyric in proof of the humane 
and benevolent heart of Perry. We here behold the 
same man who upon Lake Erie, clothed with all the 
terrors of war, was himself a host to the enemy, en- 
gaging in spirit and alacrity in an enterprise not to 
meet and conquer the enemy; not to acquire glory 
and renown, and swell the expansive note of his own 



A RESCUE. 155 



fame; not to defend the rights of his country, but to 
aid suffering humanity, or, to use his own appropri- 
ate words, ' to relieve shipwrecked seamen.' " 

But Perry dismissed the whole subject from his 
mind, and, like the simple and grave character that 
he was, regarded it merely as an incident. 

Weeks went by, and he grew more and more im- 
patient for the sailing orders to come that would 
dispatch him and his fine vessel to European waters. 
The crew were the pick of the service, and the vessel, 
he knew, was second to none of her class in all the 
world. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



THE BITTER END. 



During the early months of 1815-': 6 the Ameri- 
can flag was shown in the Mediterranean flying from 
the masts of the largest and most powerful fleets that 
the new country had ever sent out. Decatur, in April 
of the year 181 5, had sailed from New York with a 
squadron consisting of the Guerriere, Constellation, 
and Macedonian, frigates; the Ontario and Epervier, 
sloops of war; and the schooners Flambeau, Spark, 
Spitfire, and Torch, Shortly afterward this squadron 
was followed by another under Commodore Bain- 
bridge, who upon his arrival superseded Decatur in 
supreme command. 

There was a reason for all this display of force, 
for the Barbary states of Tunis and Algiers had once 
more given evidence of evil intentions. Probably they 
thought that, after having had a war with so power- 
ful a nation as Great Britain, the United States would 
have no war vessels left to defend her merchant ships, 
and probably their turbaned high mightinesses con- 
cluded that the chance was too good to be missed. 

At any rate, they both started upon the rampage, and 
156 




CoMMDDoKF. OLIVER HAZARD PERRY, U.S.N. 

(From Frecniaii' s engraving of the paiuting by J. W. Jarvis.) 



THE BITTER END. 157 

were more than mightily surprised when the Ameri- 
can squadron, headed by the seventy-four Independ- 
ence, arrived off their respective capitals and threat- 
ened punishment; and they came down from their 
attitude in short order, after having had one or two 
little actions, and from that day forward the United 
States paid no tribute to the Algerian pirates, and 
a citizen of that country was as safe in Tunis or 
Tripoli or Algiers as he would be upon the streets of 
Philadelphia. 

So much for the influence of sea power properly 
displayed. 

The Dey of Algiers was said to have remarked to 
the British consul at that port: 

" You told us that the American navy would be 
destroyed in six months by you, and now they make 
war upon us with two of your own vessels that they 
have taken from you." 

What the British officer replied to this is not on 
record. 

Perry had longed to accompany these expeditions, 
and it was to enforce the effect that they had made 
that Commodore Chauncey was dispatched, in March, 
1 81 6, to the same waters. The Java sailed out later 
and joined the squadron at Port Mahon. She car- 
ried with her the ratified treaty that had been drawn 
up between Algiers and this country. 

Again the dey attempted to cut up rough, and 



158 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

denied that he had sanctioned the treaty (his own 
seal and signature were there appended); but when 
Chauncey sailed into the harbor he changed his mind 
again, and concluded that it was best for him to stop 
his foolishness. 

And now we come to a chapter in the life of Com- 
modore Perry that deals with an entirely personal side 
of his history and character, and is yet of such inter- 
est that the public has a claim on it. 

It happened, alas! that on board the Java at this 
time there was a Captain John Heath, who com- 
manded the marines on the vessel. What sort of a 
man he was we can only judge by his actions. It is 
true he found some supporters for his methods and 
doings, but we have only to take from the records 
of the investigation and court-martial that followed 
the facts to be related, and these are simply that Com- 
modore Perry, provoked and incensed by what he 
considered insulting conduct of an inferior officer, 
raised his hand against a man dressed in the uniform 
of an officer in the service of the nation. 

With great frankness and directness he himself 
related the incident in a letter to Commodore Chaun- 
cey, then commanding the squadron. As it gives a 
history of the quarrel and explains Perry's position, 
at the same time giving further insight into his 
character, we publish it here just as it came from 
his pen: 



THE BITTER END. 159 

"United States Ship Java, Tunis Bay, October 8, 1816. 

" Sir: I am under the painful necessity of inform- 
ing you of a circumstance and of detailing to you the 
causes which led to an event of a very unpleasant 
nature. 

" The apparent violation of the lav^rs of my coun- 
try which may be imputed to me, in having offered 
personal violence to the captain of the marine guard 
of this ship, I trust will be in a great measure extenu- 
ated by the consideration that, although I do not 
absolutely defend this mode of redress, yet I insist 
the consequences were produced by a sufificient provo- 
cation. 

" The general deportment of Captain Heath to- 
ward me, so contrary to the usual address of my ofifi- 
cers, and, moreover, his marked insolence to me in 
many instances, induced me to believe that his con- 
duct proceeded from a premeditated determination 
to insult me on every occasion. 

" His palpable neglect of duty on several impor- 
tant emergencies, together with the usual indolence 
and inattention to the calls of his office, made it a de- 
sirable object with me to solicit his removal the first 
convenient opportunity, not only to obtain a more 
active and vigilant officer, but to save him the rigor- 
ous severity of a court-martial. 

" I now, sir, narrate to you the circumstances 
which have thus compelled me to address you. 



i6o THE HERO OF ERIE. 

" On the evening of the i6th of September last, 
while this ship lay at anchor in the harbor of Mes- 
sina, two of her marines deserted by jumping over- 
board and swimming on shore. Informed of the fact, 
Captain Heath, as their commanding officer, was im- 
mediately sent for and acquainted therewith; but he 
refused to go on deck, alleging as a reason therefor 
the subterfuge of indisposition. I then repeated the 
order for him to come on deck and muster the ma- 
rines. This duty he executed in so careless and in- 
different a manner, and at the same time neglected 
to report to me until called by me and requested so 
to do, that (conscious that such an occasion ought 
to animate the most careless and inattentive officer 
to decision and promptitude) I was induced, from 
such a manifest neglect of duty, to say to him ' that 
he might go below, and should do no more duty on 
board the Java.' 

" On the evening of the i8th of September he 
addressed to me a letter, written by himself, which he 
caused to be laid on the table in the cabin, and which 
I received at a very late hour. This letter being 
couched in language which I deemed indecorous and 
disrespectful, I sent for him and demanded why he 
had selected a time so obviously improper. He im- 
mediately assumed a manner so highly irritating and 
contemptuous that I believed it my duty to arrest 
him (after having expressed to him my indignation at 



THE BITTER END. i6i 



such conduct), and for this purpose sent for the second 
marine officer, at the same time ordering him to be 
silent. In utter disregard of this order, though re- 
peatedly warned of the consequences of his disobedi- 
ence, he persevered in the same irritating tone and 
manner until at length, after reiterating attempts to 
effect his silence, I gave him a blow. Frequent out- 
rage added to frequent insult provoked this disagree- 
able consequence. 

" Mortified that I should so far forget myself as 
to raise my arm against any officer holding a com- 
mission in the service of the United States, however 
improper his conduct might have been and however 
just the cause, I immediately, in conformity to this 
principle, offered to make such an apology as should 
be proper for both. This proposal was refused, which 
precluded the necessity of any further overtures. The 
of¥er was consonant to the views of some of the most 
distinguished officers of the squadron after their 
being made fully acquainted with every particular. 

" From my having been educated in the strictest 
discipline of the navy — in which respect and obedience 
to a superior was instilled into my mind as a funda- 
mental and leading principle — and from a natural dis- 
position to chastise insolence and impertinence im- 
mediately when offered me, even in private Hfe, must 
be inferred the burst of indignant feeling which 
prompted me to inflict personal satisfaction on an 



i62 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

officer who thus daringly outraged the vital interests 
of the service in my own person. 

" I have thus gone through this unpleasant re- 
cital with as much candor and conciseness as possible. 
I might, indeed, detail to you other acts of delin- 
quency in this officer, but I will not further weary you 
with the circumstances of this unfortunate affair, but 
confine myself to the request that you will be pleased 
to order a court of inquiry or court-martial, as 
you may see fit, to examine into the causes which 
led to this seeming infraction of the laws of the 
navy. 

" After eighteen years of important and arduous 
services in the cause of my country, it can hardly be 
imagined that I have any disposition to infringe that 
discipline, which is the pride and ornament of the 
navy; and to prevent any intention being falsely as- 
cribed to me, I beg you will give immediate attention 
to this quest, that the navy, as well as my country, 
shall be satisfied of the integrity of my motives. 

" I have the honor to be, sir, 

" Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 

[Signed] " O. H. Perry. 

" To Isaac Chauncey, Esq., Commodore, etc." 

Now it is not the Intention here to indulge in 
explanations or excuses. All we can say is that 
Perry's conduct after the affair was such as only to 



THE BITTER END. 163 

increase the love and respect of his countrymen, and 
can not fail to arouse in our minds to-day the same 
sentiments. A court-martial censured both officers, 
and Perry accepted the verdict without comment. 

He promptly ofifered to make an honorable apol- 
ogy to Captain Heath, and submitted this in writing 
to him; but Heath refused to accept it under any 
circumstances. 

Dueling, unfortunately, was common in those 
days in almost every branch of military service, and 
there were few men who escaped at some time dur- 
ing their lives having the disagreeable necessity of 
looking into the eyes of another man, who may pre- 
viously have been a friend and comrade, over the 
notched sights of a pistol. 

Heath was bound to call Perry out if such a thing 
were possible, and he neglected no opportunities to 
let this fact be known. 

Perry had returned to Newport in March, 181 7, 
and there, in connection with Commodore Bain- 
bridge and Captain Evans, he was kept busy for some 
months surveying the harbor and making arrange- 
ments for placing a naval station, depot, and dock- 
yard. In July he had retired from the command of 
the Java, upon which occasion there was a ceremony 
that must have touched him deeply, for the officers 
of the ship presented him with a testimonial of their 
affection and respect. 



i64 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

Everything went well and happily till the follow- 
ing year, when Captain Heath, who had come over 
to this country, appeared in Rhode Island, claiming 
and demanding honorable satisfaction for the injury 
he had received in the Mediterranean. Perry thought 
for a long time over the matter, and came at last to 
the conclusion that, under the code, if Captain Heath 
would not accept an apology, he was in honor bound 
to meet him. The State authorities, however, had 
got wind of the affair, and took steps to intervene and 
prevent the meeting. So Perry, who was apparently 
anxious to oblige Captain Heath, even against his 
own will, agreed to go on to Washington on the loth 
of October and give him the satisfaction he wished. 

He had written a long letter asking Commodore 
Decatur to be his second in the afifair, and the latter 
had accepted immediately. Alas, poor Decatur! He 
was soon to fall before an adversary's bullet in a use- 
less duel, as all duels most probably were. 

Before the meeting took place Perry wrote the 
following letter, had it signed by Decatur and his 
other friends, and insisted upon Heath's seconds sign- 
ing it also. It is quoted here verbatim: 

" Captain Perry desires it to be explicitly under- 
stood that, in according to Captain Heath the per- 
sonal satisfaction he had demanded, he has been in- 
fluenced by a sense of what he considers due from 



THE BITTER END. 165 

him as an atonement to the violated rules of the serv- 
ice, and not by any considerations of the claims which 
Captain Heath may have for making such a demand, 
which he totally denies, as such claims have been for- 
feited by the measures of a public character which 
Captain Heath has adopted toward him. If, there- 
fore, the civil authority should produce an impossibil- 
ity of meeting at the time and place designed, which 
he will take every precaution to prevent, he will con- 
sider himself absolutely exonerated from any responsi- 
bility to Captain Heath touching their present cause 
of difference." 

One fine fall day — the iQtli of October, to be more 
exact — a little party of eight persons descended from 
two coaches that drove into a w^ood road that ran 
through a little forest on the Jersey shore of the Hud- 
son. Two of the men carried small mahogany boxes, 
and when a clearing was reached the errand of the 
party was easily seen. 

Two of the men strolled off to one side; they 
both were young, in the very heyday of manhood. 

" I have firmly made up my mind upon this sub- 
ject," said one, speaking in a low tone of voice. " I 
have no animosity toward the fellow at all. It is just 
an atonement that I make for an infringement of the 
regulations and etiquette of the service." 

" Do as you think best," returned the other, " but 



i66 THE HERO OF ERIE. 

it is against my wishes and advice. It is quixotic, 
and you run great risks. My advice is to wing him." 

Suddenly a voice broke in: 

" Are you ready, gentlemen? " and then two men 
faced one another but a short distance apart, pistols 
hanging in their right hands, for it was agreed at the 
word " three " they would raise and fire, instead of 
dropping into the position. 

"One, two, three!" counted one of the seconds. 

There came but a single shot, and that from Cap- 
tain Heath's pistol, that was smoking in his hand. 

Perry stood there silent and motionless. He was 
unhurt, and had not moved a linger to lift his weapon. 
He had made his atonement. 

" Are you satisfied? " he asked Captain Heath 
politely. 

" I am, sir," was the captain's return. 

Perry handed the unused pistol to one of the sec- 
onds, and taking Decatur's arm hastened to one of 
the carriages. His conduct was just what might have 
been expected from such a high-hearted and noble- 
minded man, and that he escaped injury and that a 
tragedy was averted became reasons for great rejoic- 
ing everywhere. 

During the year 1819 pirates swarmed and infested 
the waters of the Caribbean Sea, and Commodore 
Perry was sent there in the old frigate John Adams, 
in company with the None Such, in order to put a 



THE BITTER END. 167 

stop to the piracy, and to make official visits to the 
West Indian governors and to the north shores of 
South America. 

Yellow fever was rife all along the coast, and while 
ashore at Venezuela the young commodore was sub- 
ject to contagion and contracted the disease. He 
was taken aboard his ship, with the fond hope that he 
might recover at sea, but on the 23d of August (which, 
by the way, was his birthday) he died on shipboard, 
just as his vessel was entering the port of Spain on 
the island of Trinidad. There he was buried with full 
military honors, and seventeen years afterward his 
remains were brought back to his native town, and 
there they rest under a granite monument on the hill 
looking down over the waters. 

His example left a deep imprint upon the minds 
of his brother officers in the service, and his loss was 
mourned by a whole country, and by a devoted wife 
and four children who survived him. He was but 
thirty-four when he gave up his final command, but 
his life had been filled with fine things finely done, 
and was rounded to completion at an age when most 
men are entering into the fullness of their powers. 



THE END. 



